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11 



e Adolescent Girl Among 
Primitive Peoples 



BY 



MIRIAM VAN WATERS, A. M. 

Fellow in Anthropology, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 



A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS., IN 
PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, AND 
ACCEPTED ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF 
ALEXANDER F. CHAMBERLAIN :::::::: 



Reprinted from the Journal of Religious Psychology, Vol. VI, No. 4, 

October, 1913, pp. 375-421 and Vol. VII, No. 1, 

January, 1914, pp. 75-120 



The Adolescent Girl Among 
Primitive Peoples 



BY 



MIRIAM VAN WATERS, A. M. 

Fellow in^ Anthropology, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 



A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF 
CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS., IN 
PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, AND 
ACCEPTED ON [THE C RECOMMENDATION OF 
ALEXANDER F. CHAMBERLAIN :::::::: 



Reprinted from the Journal of Religious Psychology, Vol. VI, No. 4, 

October, 1913, r pp.i375-421 and Vol. VII, No. 1, 

January ,11914, pp. 75-120 



4? 



V * 



> 






I 



THE ADOLESCENT GIRL AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 
By mieiam van wateks, a. m., 

Fellow in Anthropology, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 

Outline 

I. Introduction: A. Problem; B. Method. 
II. General Discussion of Literature: A. Genetic Theory; B. Physical 
Theory; C. Social Theory; D. Religion Theory; E. Sequence 
Theory. 

III. Primitive Theories of Menstruation: A. Asexual Type; B. Absence 

of Theory; C. Sex-Emphasis; D. External Mark of Social Ma- 
turity; E. Supernatural Type (1. Impurity Theory; 2. Mystery 
Theory). 

IV. Variation in Degrees of Attention Paid to Puberty of Girls: 1. 
|| Minimum Degree; 2. List of Peoples having no "Puberty" 

Ceremonies; 3. Intermediate Emphasis; 4. List of Peoples Repre- 
senting Maximum Degrees of Attention. 
V. Some Constituent Elements of "Puberty' '-Ceremonies: A. Table 
of Items; B. Significance of Factors listed in " Puberty "-Cere- 
monies. 
VI. Native Explanations of "Puberty "-Customs: A. Tattooing; B 
Circumcision; C. Other " Puberty "-Customs (1. Esthetic; 2 
Physical; 3. Pedagogical; 4. Religious and Magical; 5. Social) 
VII. Sex-Discrimination: A. Absence of Discrimination; B. Discrimina 
tion Common to Other Social Groups; C. Some Factors of Dis 
crimination (1. Social Class; 2. Religion; 3. Pre-Marital Status; 
4. Inversion). 
VIII. Some Suggestions as to Modern Application; (A. Case I; B. Case 
2). 
IX. Conclusions: (A. Periodicity; B. Individuation; C. Symbiosis). 
X. Bibliography. 

The writer wishes to express deepest gratitude to those who have aided 
this work; to Dr. Alex. F. Chamberlain for constant encouragement and 
criticism; to Dr. Theodate Smith, and Dr. Louis N. Wilson; and to Mr. 
Gilbertson for references dealing with the Eskimo. 

I. Introduction 
This study grew out of an attempt to envisage clearly the 
problems centering in the adolescent girl in modern society. In 
the conflicting mass of evidence and opinion little was discovered 
upon which to base scientific results. Hence, it was found 
essential to place the foundation in the generic life of the race, 



4 JOUHNAL OF EELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

before attempting solutions of specific characters. In this reli- 
ance on a vast human background, the "recapitulation theory" 
is not, of necessity, assumed. 

A. Problem 

In dealing with the problem of the adolescent girl, from the 
anthropological point of view, we shall attempt to discover the 
primitive attitude toward the period of puberty in girls. We 
shall seek to present primitive theories of the physiological 
changes that attend this period, and their social and religious 
consequences. AA 7 e then take up variation in degrees of attention 
paid to puberty in girls, and attempt to indicate some facts of 
the ethnological distribution of "puberty "-ceremonies. These 
range from complete non-observance, through varied inter- 
mediate degrees, up to a maximum of emphasis. Some 
constituent elements of "puberty "-ceremonies are set forth and 
classified as they relate to physical, esthetic, pedagogical, social 
or religious aspects. Next, the native explanations of these 
aspects are considered, in the hope of showing clearly and 
definitely the psychological factors that determine the observance 
of puberty in girls. The primitive attitude is further expressed 
in the amount of sex-discrimination present; this is analyzed 
into certain types and factors. Finally, some attempt is made 
to compare this material with data of a preliminary survey of 
the delinquent adolescent girl begun by the writer. 

Thus the present problem limits itself to the attitude of 
primitive society toward the adolescent girl, not trying to solve 
the separate problem of the girl's reaction to this attitude, and 
the psychological factors therein involved. 

B. Method 
This study makes no claim to exhaustiveness. The data 
presented are characteristic of primitive peoples of widely 
different somatic and cultural types, and, hence, are representa- 
tive of generic humanity. The method is necessarily compara- 
tive, rather than regional, but it has been attempted, first, to 
use reports only of trained observers; second, to supply from 
these reports sufficient context of religious and social status, 
to avoid misinterpretation. In addition, the method of native 
explanations has been introduced. This method cannot supply 
evidence of the origin and development of "puberty "-customs, 



van waters: adolescent girl 5 

nor give support to theories, but it furnishes insight into the 
present significance of these customs in the mind of the people 
who practice them. Finally, it has been recognized that the 
term "puberty" applied loosely to anthropological material has 
little meaning. Physiological puberty varies with race, sex, 
climate, altitude, nutrition, heredity, social status, occupation, 
etc. Hence, we have no method of discovering whether "pu- 
berty "-ceremony and physical puberty coincide- Social "pu- 
berty" varies still more extensively, and may both precede and 
follow physical maturity. Hence, it should be remembered that 
we use the term "puberty" merely in a conventional sense. 

II. General Discussion op Literature 

Theories of the significance of adolescence among primitive 
peoples have been very numerous in this century of quickened 
interest in the child. It being impossible to present here a 
complete and coherent historical survey, we shall merely attempt 
to indicate some of the more important types. 

A. The Genetic Theory 

To Dr. G. Stanley Hall we chiefly owe the genetic concept of 
adolescence, and the genetic method of approach. This has 
been compared to a new Darwinism (Amer. Anthrop., 1904, 
n. s. VI, 539 ) . As applied to the adolescent girl, the recapitula- 
tion theory may have far-reaching consequences. President Hall 
thus seeks to explain physical and mental precocity in the 
growth-curve of girls by reference to past activities of the 
race: 

"It seems plausible, from ■what we know of savage races, phallieism, 
etc., that the female would at first be prematurely impregnated, at least 
as soon as she became attractive to the other sex, on account of the 
hypertrophied sex-passion in the human male, and would have been forced 
to assume maternal functions before nature had completed her prepara- 
tions therefor. Many of the institutions of higher and even savage life, 
however, later came in that would tend to postpone fertilization. Thus, 
we should have an early stimulus of the reproductive function followed 
phyletically by a more or less gradual postponement of it. "With this 
delay, the cell-development that had formerly gone to genesis would turn 
back to individuation. ... On this view, part of the sudden and 
early increment in girls is a trace of ancient but now deferred maternity 
now turned to personal augmentation by male restraint and 
female coyness." (35.1: 42.) 



6 JOUENAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

In our study of the girl among primitive peoples, we find little 
evidence of the predominance of the sexual element that would 
render this hypothesis probable, at least for uncivilized races 
now existing. Dr. Hall's further emphasis of religion in rela- 
tion to the adolescent girl is amply illustrated by facts 
collected in the present survey. (35:561-647.) The author's 
statement, however, that "the Madonna conception expresses 
man's highest comprehension of woman's real nature" (35. 
II : 627, 646), is probably not true of primitive humanity, though 
it may be of a specialized type. As an outcome of geneticism 
should be mentioned the Freudian theory of the development of 
sexuality in the individual. According to this school, sex-life 
is present at birth, manifesting itself in some form accessible 
to observation as early as the third year, or before. (28:34.) 
The child passes through various levels of "polymorph-per- 
verse Anlage," up to the period of adolescence, the latter portion 
of which is especially prone to neuroses, due to repressed desires 
of childhood (p. 44). For our present purpose, it suffices to say 
that this view renders the term "adolescence" and "puberty" 
of no significance, unless, indeed, we might describe puberty as 
the birthday of hysteria. According to Freud, it is this poly- 
morphic perversity of the child that is most analogous to the 
sex-life of the primitive or uncultured woman (pp. 44-45). While 
the development of this instinct in the girl is always of a 
bi-sexual nature, at puberty her dangers are especially great, 
owing to repression (pp. 62, 69). 

With Freud we should compare Havelock Ellis, who also 
accepts the genetic view, but does not adopt the theory of the 
unconscious. Ellis notes that it seems clear that nervous and 
psychic sexual activities have their first springs in early child- 
hood, but it is probably true that the soundest and healthiest 
individuals show no definite signs till puberty. (20: 35.) 



B. Physical Theory 

The purely physical theory of "puberty "-customs has never 
obtained many supporters. Ploss explains thus the rite of cir- 
cumcision as a primitive effort to assist nature, and analogous 
mutilations and physical ceremonies as derived phenomena. 



VAN WATEES: ADOLESCENT GIRL 7 

Webster also uses this explanation of circumcision (93: 37) and 
Hyrtl, Kiseh, and, also, Broca, adopt this view, suggesting 
that, in case of girls, circumcision arose in localities where it 
was a physiological necessity (Ann. de Gynec, Paris, 1908, 
1:485-487). Westermarck, and, to a certain extent, Ploss also, 
give the physical theory a broader application. Westermarck, in 
his chapter on ' ' Means of Attraction, ' ' holds that the chief items 
in " puberty "-ceremonies are means taken by one sex to attract 
the attention and favor of the other. This same impulse to adorn 
and reveal is found among animals in the form of secondary 
sex-characters, due, not to sexual selection, in the Darwinian 
sense, but to natural selection based on the need of the sexes 
to find one another during the period of mating. (95 : 165-212.) 
Thus, decoration, mutilations, rites, and ceremonies of adoles- 
cence are analogous to the bright pigments, wattles, spurs, 
antlers, perfumes, etc., which the human race has lost the power 
of acquiring. Much, seemingly, may be said for this theory, 
but it fails to consider the profound religious and social stress 
placed by primitive peoples on puberty. It ignores, too, similar 
customs that take place at widely different stages of life of the 
individual, all of which cannot possibly relate to sex-attraction. 
A specialized, fragmentary form of the physical theory has 
been suggested by Edward Tregear (J. Anthr. Inst., Lond., 1895, 
vol. 25, pp. 87-88). He seeks to explain taboos, limitations, seclu- 
sion, and all forms of disability incurred by the adolescent girl, 
as due to the primitive recognition of need of rest and continence 
during periodicity. This was first sanctioned by religion, later 
it generated into meaningless customs and ideas of the defiling 
nature of menstruation. The author, as chief inspector of 
factories in New Zealand, has had opportunity to compare primi- 
tive and modern conditions in this respect and strongly advo- 
cates return to the former. As the male counterpart to this 
theory, Dall supposes rites of piercing, tattooing, labretifery, 
circumcision, etc., to be due to the custom of submitting the boy 
at puberty to tests of endurance. Later, this became a symbol of 
maturity, privilege and obligation to tribal rights, particularly 
the right to participate in sexual intercourse. When these rites 
were extended to women, it was because this symbol was recog- 
nized as a privilege granted in the course of advancing culture 
(3d Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., pp. 80-81). 



8 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

C. Social Theory 

"Puberty' '-ceremonies, as means of tribal or group incorpora- 
tion, have been studied by "Webster, Schurtz, Andree, Lippert, 
and others. Webster holds that puberty-rites formerly universal 
became the basis of all secret societies. The "men's house," thus 
created, became the center of tribal regulation, defence, medicine, 
art, religion. Seclusion of the uninitiated and women from the 
secret societies preserved tribal solidarity. The author remarks : 

"Puberty-institutions for initiation of young men into manhood are 
among the most widespread and characteristic features of primitive life." 
(93: 32.) ' 

He adds (p. 45) : 

"The various ceremonies which take place on the arrival of girls at 
puberty are distinctly less impressive than those of the boys; as a rule, 
there is no attempt at a formal initiation possessing tribal aspects and 
secret rites." 

Webster's view, though very suggestive, does not account for 
all the facts of adolescent initiation. As van Gennep points out, 
Webster ignores comparison of rites from the point of view 
of sequence, and confuses physiological with social "puberty." 
(29:93-94.) 

Schurtz 's valuable collection of facts leads him to a similar 
conclusion. By the "instinct of sociability," developing at 
puberty, and uniting the male sex into age-classes and groups, 
special social interests are served best. He does not attempt 
treatment of puberty-rites for the girl. (74.) 

Thomas adopts these views. Secret societies, circumcision, 
initiation-ceremonies, tattooing, scarification, etc., are "devices 
by which men escape from the tyranny of the maternal system. ' ' 
They represent "first attempts to synthetize the male forces 
of the group." (92:90.) 

D. Religion Theory 

This type of theory is associated with the names of Frazer, 
Crawley, Haddon, Spencer and Frobenius ; the basis upon which 
all build is Tylor's conception of primitive animism. Frazer 
and Haddon regard "puberty-rites" as means taken by primitive 
man to assimilate himself to his totem. Mutilations, cicatrices, 
tooth-knocking, painting, etc., represent totemistic features upon 



van waters: adolescent girl 9 

the human body. This view has been successfully opposed by 
Goldenweiser (33) from the side of totemism itself. Evidence 
to support it from data of "puberty "-ceremonies seems lacking, 
since the same rites exist where totemism is absent. Crawley 
holds the cause of these rites to be fear of contagion, and means 
taken to remove it; all persons of one sex are conceived as 
dangerous to the other, but especially so during sex-crises, such 
as puberty, childbirth, etc. (14:14.) Spencer proposed the idea 
of religious sacrifice, which later developed into the concept of 
a sacred part for continued well-being of the whole. (22. 
111:65.) Frobenius maintains that " puberty "-ceremonies are 
the result of ancestor-cult and the desire to assimilate the novices 
to the condition of spirits. 

These theories explain rites pertaining to sex on the basis of 
religion, — a new and extreme example of this type has been 
recently set forth, which seeks to explain all religion on the 
basis of sex-consciousness. Schroeder suggests that the begin- 
ning of self-conscious sex-life in the race marked the beginning 
of religious life. Phallic worship constituted the first historically 
known reverential rites. (73:145.) So, "all religion, in its 
beginning, is a mere misinterpretation of sex-ecstacy, " a kind 
of "psycho-sexual perversion." And, thus, "all puberty- 
ceremonies are explained from this point of view" (p. 125, 
pp. 145-146). But Schroeder 's conclusion cannot possibly hold 
for the entire field; the vast majority of "puberty-rites" are not 
capable of explanation in this way. 

A careful paper by Daniels emphasizes the religious point of 
attack from a wholly different angle. For him, initiation-rites 
are expressive of physiological and psychological changes at 
puberty. They show both the need and the natural generic pre- 
disposition toward the spiritual change formulated in the 
theological doctrine of regeneration. (15:63.) The wealth of 
detailed facts supports this conclusion. But it is only when 
details of ceremonial are separated from the cycle in which they 
occur that they can be explained by a single principle. The 
matter is far more complex. For instance, the ceremonies of 
"re-birth" frequently take place during early childhood, and 
have no reference whatever to adolescent changes. Again, the 
same type of ritual may be used in the various stages of life 
of the individual. 



10 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

E. Sequence Theory. ''Bites de Passage" 

Van Gennep was about the first to recognize this complexity. 
In a noteworthy book on primitive rites and ceremonies, he 
demonstrated the error of the old classification into " puberty "- 
rites, marriage-rites, etc., each explained independently on the 
basis of magic, animism, totemism, or any other theory. Primi- 
tive ceremonies, he maintained, must be studied from the point 
of view of sequence; they begin at the conception of the child, 
and follow him through life in unbroken series. Each rite may 
be interpreted as marking a passage from some stage to another ; 
thus, each age, condition, change of status or occupation, sub- 
mission to new masters or chiefs, entrance upon new situations, 
as well as physical passage over thresholds, openings, etc., is 
indicated by a "rite de passage." These often form a fixed 
whole, and can only be arbitrarily sectioned into detached 
ceremonies. (29:93-163.) Dr. Ernst Samter (70) arrives at 
similar conclusions, and uses the sequence-method. 
, Thus, the impossibility of reducing ceremonies of primitive 
life to any one theory has been made evident. Recognition of 
the extreme degree of variation and complexity attending so 
vital a human period as adolescence is the first duty of a student 
in this field. We proceed to investigate what concepts primitive 
peoples themselves have held or now hold in regard to the 
puberty of girls. 



III. Primitive Theories op Menstruation 

In primitive thought, no less than in modern science, the 
phenomenon of menstruation has been fertile in theoretical 
explanations. These show the greatest variation, from the most 
direct and empirical to the most fantastic. The primitive solu- 
tions of this problem are intimately bound up with the attitude 
toward sex in general, and the social position of women. Particu- 
larly are they correlated with the treatment given the adolescent 
girl; yet here no distinctly causal relation can be maintained. 
Side by side with the theory that has the least to do with sex, 
or with mystery, may exist customs of seclusion, fasting and 
elaborate taboos (Shuswap; some Australian). Some of the 
chief types of menstruation-theories found among primitive 
peoples are briefly as follows. 



van waters: adolescent girl 11 

A. Asexual or Secondary Type 

The human element, as distinct from the purely sexual, has 
not been sufficiently emphasized in the study of primitive con- 
cepts of puberty. There is not always a sex-basis given even to 
the primary sex-characters themselves. A social-economic ex- 
planation, e. g., has been thought of by the Shuswap for so 
elementary a sex-function as menstruation. In Teit's account 
of the Shuswap legend this is clearly seen: 

"Formerly, the men menstruated, and not the women. When Coyote 
was working in the world, putting things to rights, he considered this 
matter, and said to himself, 'It is not right that men should menstruate. 
It is very inconvenient, for they do all the hunting, and most of the 
traveling. Women stay more at home, and, therefore, it will be better 
if they menstruate, and not the men.' Whereupon he took some of the 
menstrual fluid from men and threw it upon the women, saying, 'Hence- 
forth, women shall menstruate, and not men.' " (89: 626-627.) 

A crude approximation to modern biological theory might be 
traced in this conception of a state of affairs where sex is super- 
imposed on a common asexual type. (Goodale, Science, Feb. 13, 
1913.) 

Similar in implication is a myth of the Northern Shoshone. 
Here, too, the periodic function has its source, not in attributes 
fundamental to a sex, but in mere chance (50: 239) : 

"In the beginning, Wolf wanted to make everything easy and pleasant 
for the Indians, Coyote tried to make them work hard, as they must do 
to-day. . . . Wolf said to Coyote, 'Let there be no menstruation.' 
Coyote thought it was proper that women should menstruate, so he took 
some blood and threw it at his daughter. She began to menstruate, and 
went to a menstrual lodge. . . . To-day things are as Coyote wished 
them." 

It should be mentioned that, although the fact of menstruation 
is fortuitous, the custom of seclusion was the result of a voli- 
tional act on the part of a girl herself. 

These two myths are sufficient illustration of the numerous 
widespread explanations that are comprised under the simple, 
incidental type. Psychologically related to this type are the 
direct, natural modes of treatment: rest, bathing, lying in sand 
or earth, change of garments and diet, variation in the usual 
activities; and, possibly, the customs of steaming, smoking, 
"roasting," etc. 



12 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

B. Absence of Theory, etc. 

It is commonly stated that all primitive peoples view menstru- 
ation as mysterious or unclean. Thus, Havelock Ellis observes 
(21:14-15): 

"An important origin of the mystery which women have aroused in 
men, and even in themselves, lies in the periodic menstrual function. This 
function, unlike any normal physiological function in men, has been an 
everlasting source of marvel and of profound repugnance among all primi- 
tive races. They have been singularly unanimous on this point, and even 
seem to show a certain amount of unanimity in their explanations. 
Everywhere, during the continuance of the flow, the women is regarded 
as more or less unclean." 

Ploss, Crawley and Frazer give expression to the same 
opinion. It is true that ideas of mystery, impurity and the 
supernatural are somewhat widespread in primitive attitudes 
toward this function; but it can not be maintained, by any 
means, that such ideas are universal. The list of peoples having 
no "puberty "-rites, as well as no notion of mysticism in men- 
struation, includes primitive stocks like the Veddas, Todas, cer- 
tain of the Bantu tribes, some Indians of California, etc., as 
well as the cultured Nambuthiris (representing Vedic Brahman- 
ism). With this last group women are not required to keep 
aloof during menstruation, as other Brahman women. (42. 
11:263, 288.) It is significant that the Indo-Malaysian inter- 
tropical lands, regarded by many ethnologists as the cradle of 
the human race, exhibit both types of attitude in their extreme 
degrees. Some of the Melanesians (e.g., the Koita) have "no 
special ceremony when the catamenia first appear, nor is a girl 
at this time specially avoided, or considered especially danger- 
ous." (75 : 140.) So, among the Orang Laut, no notice is taken 
of menstruation, nor do men avoid women in this condition. 
(81. 1: 54.) Women of the Bontoe Igorot work, eat and sleep 
as usual. (43:700-703.) It will be seen in Section IV that 
this entire region occupies first place in the absence, or in the 
presence of minimum degrees, of attention to puberty. Coin- 
cident with this is the ten-year unmitigated seclusion of some 
of the girls of the New Britain group. Thus, in this limited and 
extremely ancient area, we see the complexity and variety of 
which the human race is capable in dealing with the phenomena 
of puberty. Assuredly, no dogmatic statements can be accepted, 
and it should be remembered that, even among the data we now 



van waters: adolescent girl 13 

possess, it is the esoteric observances of puberty, and not the 
equally important common human attitude, that has been most 
frequently stressed. (Chamberlain, in Science, May 7, 1909, 
p. 743.) " 

C. Sex-Emphasis 

A maximum degree of sex-examples is found in those theories 
which explain the first menstruation as a marriage, or as the 
result of union with some supernatural beings. In Cambodia, 
girls before puberty are called " prohmocarei, i.e., the chaste;" 
after puberty, they are believed to be the brides of Indra, and 
are described as those "who go into the shade." (Cabaton, in 
22. Ill : 163). Among the Baganda of Africa, the first menstru- 
ation is called a marriage, and the girl is looked on as a bride, 
and is clothed and fed as such, though there is no evidence to 
show that actual marriage takes place at puberty. (6Q : 80.) In 
the Baganda description of the girl as being "at peace" is 
found a curious echo of the Cambodian expression just noted. 
Among some peoples, the moon is held responsible for the first 
menstruation. Possibly there are traces here of primitive 
observation of the relation between periodicity and the lunar 
cycle. The Saibai, of Torres Sts., maintain that the moon, in 
the shape of a man, embraces the girl, when she is full-grown, 
and that the halo around the moon represents the girl's blood. 
(75:206.) The same story is told at Yam and Tutu, and is 
also found on the neighboring coast of New Guinea, and at 
Mawata (p. 207). Traces of this explanation appear in 
Australia. 

The Siamese believe that evil spirits hover around the 
pubescent girl, and, by their intercourse with her, cause the 
wound from which she suffers each month. (Loubere, Siam, 
1:203.) 

There is much evidence for supposing that one of the psycho- 
logical reasons for marriage before puberty (as distinct from 
economic and social reasons) is to be found in this belief in the 
supernatural cause of the first menstruation, and the desire to 
rob the deity of his privilege. Thus, failure to marry before 
puberty becomes as disgraceful as an illegitimate connection. 
Among the Nattu (Cochin), marriage is celebrated at the tenth 
year, and "a. girl who has reached the age of puberty as a 
virgin is considered impure, and no person will take her as a 



14 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

wife." (42. 1:32.) So, the father of a girl, who permits her 
to attain puberty before the arrangement of marriage, was pun- 
ished among the ancient Hindus (Laws of Manu) as if he had 
committed an abortion. Frequently, throughout the Cochin 
district and elsewhere, this belief becomes crystallized into a 
ceremony independent both of marriage and of the puberty-rite. 
Among the Nayars (high-caste Sudras), girls undergo the 
"ta^-tying ceremony" shortly before puberty. This ceremony, 
as described by Haddon, consists in tying the girdle of the girl 
with that of a man of suitable caste, chosen by her relatives. 
The ceremony involves the right of intercourse for four or five 
days, and is obligatory only for females. (42. l:xv.) It is 
considered a religious impurity for a girl to attain puberty 
before the performance of this ceremony. The puberty- 
ceremony proper, however, may be put off to "a convenient 
day," though when it occurs, it is fairly elaborate. (42. II: 22, 
30.) Among the Kadupattans (p. 106), marriage occurs between 
the ages of ten and twelve, and, at puberty, there is ceremonial 
observance for four days, but the "tali-tying" ceremony must 
be performed before puberty, or caste will be lost. Here, the 
"puberty "-ceremony is by no means an initiation into sexual 
life, which occurs both before puberty and before marriage, and 
is seemingly determined by a belief that the first menstruation 
is, in itself, a form of marriage. 

A similar state of affairs exists with the primitive Todas, who 
have no "puberty "-ceremonies for either sex. Here, the girl 
is betrothed or married in infancy; shortly before puberty, a 
man of an outside clan must cover her with his mantle. Four- 
teen or fifteen days later, a strong man, of any clan but her 
own, must have intercourse with her, and this "must take place 
before puberty few things are regarded as more dis- 
graceful than that this ceremony should be delayed till after 
this period." (65:103.) For these and analogous customs 
there are, without doubt, numerous factors of explanation, but 
the theory of the sexual origin of menstruation probably plays 
the dominant role. 

Somewhat differently, the same theory is involved in certain 
types of circumcision ceremonies and mutilations, and in the 
custom of religious prostitution. We have no evidence that 
these modes of treatment are primitive. They occur, apparently, 



van waters: adolescent girl 15 

as secondary developments, under the influence of religion, 
magic, caste and the like. Borrowing may here be a factor of 
the greatest importance. For instance, Iver notes of the Nayar 
"tali-tying ceremony" that, although there is a modern tendency 
for the withdrawal of the ceremony, it is kept up for the sake 
of social distinction, for, originally, it was borrowed from the 
Brahmans, ' ' in the belief that it would lead to social distinction. ' ' 
(42. 11:29.) Similar instances are numerous. Thus, religion, 
in combination with a belief in the sexual origin of menstrua- 
tion, may bring about extreme modes of treatment. Some 
theorists have sought the origin of circumcision in the notion or 
religious offering or dedication. Circumcision thus becomes a 
sacrifice. 

Here, we are clearly outside the domain of facts, for, as will 
become evident in the list of native explanations of " puberty "- 
ceremonies, the idea of sacrifice is nowhere mentioned by 
primitive peoples themselves. Nevertheless, in the case of the 
circumcision of girls, the theory of sacrifice has some justifica- 
tion. Bearing in mind that the first menstruation is sometimes 
held to be a marriage, the ceremony of circumcision might there 
be conceived as a sacrifice or offering of the girl to the super- 
natural being who had first espoused her. Fantastic as this 
appears, it is not far from the facts in the case of religious 
prostitution as practiced by some of the ancient Semites. 
(Macler, in 19. 1: 797.) The same idea may lurk in the Phenic- 
ian religious ceremonial before marriage, where, at the feast of 
Bylus, the bride must sacrifice either her hair or her virginity. 
(15:67.) The Australian rite of "Atna-Ariltha" must be 
explained from several points of view, if, indeed, it can be 
adequately explained. However, the presence here of the theory 
of the sexual origin of menstruation, held by certain of the 
South-East tribes, furnishes a highly suggestive coincidence. 
(85:93.) 

The complexity of the problem appears when we consider a 
similar type of mutilation, formerly practiced by the Volans, a 
fishing-caste of the Cochin district. Here, the custom prevails 
of "theralikka," or "causing" the girl to attain maturity. 
After the operation, it is announced that the girl has reached 
puberty, and seclusion and ceremonial are gone through with. 
The girl is now marriageable. The object of the custom is stated 



16 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

to be to relieve the parents of the support of the girl. It 
is important to note that "theralikka" is now being abandoned 
by the Volans because of the health of the girls. Here, the 
primary cause of the custom was economic, not sexual, and the 
reason for its withdrawal physiological. It is a serious mistake, 
therefore, to group all phenomena of a seemingly sex-origin 
under a common heading. 

The sex-emphasis type of theory occurs with the least 
frequency, and has the narrowest range of ethnological distribu- 
tion in comparison with other types of theory. Its importance 
lies chiefly in the light it tends to shed on extreme modes of 
treatment of the girl at the period of puberty. 



D. The External Mark of Social Maturity 

The first menstruation frequently marks the social maturity 
of the girl, as among certain peoples, circumcision, slaying of 
the first animal or warrior, etc., do for the boy. This maturity 
may be tacitly expressed by the widespread custom of change 
of dress or ornaments, such as the insertion of labrets (Dene 
and Salish Indians), completion of the last tattooing (Fiji and 
some of the pagan tribes of the Malay Peninsula), admission 
to the women's club-house (Bontoc Igorot), or to secret societies, 
hereditary or acquired fraternities, such as the Kotikili of the 
Zuiii (86:103), etc., or by undertaking the business of some 
profession, such as shamanism, etc. Thus, among the Subanuns 
of Sindangan Bay (Philippine Islands), where the only atten- 
tion paid to puberty is change to adult garments, the women 
who are to be shamans assume their religious and medical func- 
tions at puberty. (13:54, 71-73.) The same is true of some 
of Algonkian Indian tribes, where the girls designed to become 
"medicine-women" have been subjected to hard usage since 
childhood, take up their profession at the period of puberty. 
(Owen, in 22. 1:323.) 

The Korean capping-ceremony, as originally carried out, 
united several phases of maturity. It did not, however, occur 
always at the onset of puberty, being sometimes delayed until 
the fifteenth year. Here, we see ceremonial and impressive 
change of dress, re-naming and presentation to ancestors, 
together with the assumption of adult responsibility. This is all 



van waters: adolescent giel 17 

expressed in a formula of blessing, which was the same for 
both sexes. (49.) 

Some actual external sign of social maturity may be given 
the girl at the first menstruation. The Papuans of Yule Island 
give the girl a large knit carrying-bag, as token of her maturity ; 
thus, "with woman, a bag means womanhood; a boy, when he 
gets his first bag, becomes a loafer, a girl becomes a worker." 
(Van Goethem, in Anthropos, 1912, vol. 7, 792-795.) 

This emancipation from childhood may be expressed symbolic- 
ally. The Uniche Veddas have borrowed the custom of seclusion 
from the Sinhalese, but have added a variant. At the first 
menstruation, a pot of water is placed on the girl's head by a 
female relative. They proceed to a nuga-tree, where the pot 
is dashed to pieces. (77: 94.) With this may be compared the 
breaking of a glass or dish at the marriage-ceremony of the 
Cochin Jews, and similar rites. (42. 11:410.) 

With the Melanesians of Wagawaga, puberty marks the first 
time when individuals of both sexes may eat human flesh. 
(76:559.) The removal of taboos, restrictions and limitations 
in general frequently occurs automatically at puberty. Thus, 
among the Cochin Chedans, the girl, before puberty, "cannot 
eat meat, nor touch any vessel or food in the house of her 
husband's family." (42. II : 370.) 

Vows made by the girl's parents in her behalf at birth, of 
achievement, sacrifice, occasionally involving suicide, etc., are 
frequently carried out at puberty. (12:30.) 

A similar explanation of the significance of puberty seems to 
be indicated in the frequent customs of leaving home, setting 
out on a journey alone, disapppearance, etc. Daniels (15) refers 
to this in connection with boys only, but the custom is by no 
means confined to them. The Maidu of California pay a maxi- 
mum of attention to the social aspects of puberty in girls, and 
the initial step in their ceremonial is the disappearance of the 
girl into the hills at the onset of the first menstruation. 
(18:236.) With the Naga tribes of Manipur, the girl is 
tattooed at puberty, at which time she leaves home and resides 
in another village. "(Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, Lond., 
1911, p. 31, p. 145.) Many other examples might also be cited. 

Frequently, however, this arrival at social maturity is 
expressed in definite terms. The girl may be given complete 



18 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

freedom. At puberty, the Lolos of Kientchang, in western 
China, give the girl absolute liberty, — "care is completely 
devolved on her;" she is free to come and go, to be absent for 
long periods, to visit her distant relatives, etc. (Legendre, in 
Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1912, pp. 569-586.) Nordenskiold reports 
of the South American tribes of the Rio Pilcomayo (Ashluslays, 
Chorotis, etc.) that, after the first menstruation, the girls are 
absolutely free in the community. (60:78.) Koch-Griinberg 
observed the same facts among the girls of certain tribes of 
northwestern Brazil. (46: 91, 100.) This freedom, dating from 
the first menstruation, must not be confused with the freedom 
of sex-intercourse sometimes given to youth of both sexes until 
marriage. It frequently happens that the people who give the 
largest freedom to the adolescent girl hold irregular sexual 
relations in abhorrence, and maintain a high degree of chastity, 
as do, e. g., the Lolos. 

The onset of puberty, as marking social maturity and freedom 
in their highest degrees, is found among the Seri Indians of the 
Gulf of California. After the puberty-feast, and the painting of 
the girl 's face with designs that are hereditary in the female line, 
the girl is free to marry, or to use her power of veto over offers 
of marriage. Pending deliberations, her kinswomen may erect 
for her a special house (jacal), where she may receive "the 
most intimate attentions from the clan-fellows of the groom." 
The groom now enters upon a probationary period, during which 
he must give proof of his fitness in hunting and in rigorous 
self-control : 

"During this period, the always dignified position occupied by the 
daughter of the family culminates; she is the observed of all observers, 
the subject of gossip among matrons and warriors alike . . . through 
his (the groom's) energy she is enabled to dispense largess with lavish 
hand, and, thus, to dignify her clan and honor her spouse . . . and, 
at the same time, she enjoys the immeasurable moral stimulus of realiz- 
ing that she is the arbiter of the fate of a man who becomes warrior 
or outcast at her bidding, and, through him, of the future of two clans, 
i.e., she is raised to a responsibility in both personal and tribal affairs, 
which, albeit temporary, is hardly lower than that of the warrior chief." 

Dr. McGee remarks further, "the moral test measures the 
character of the man; in every fact, it at the same time, both 
measures and makes the character of the woman." At the end 
of the probationary year there is a marriage-feast, and the 



van waters: adolescent girl 19 

groom "enters his bride's jacal as perpetual guest; while the 
bride passes from a half-wanton heyday into the duller routine 
of matronly existence." (56:11, 165, 280-283. Comp. 
55:371-383.) 

E. Supernatural Type: Theories of Impurity, Mystery, etc. 

The wide dimensions and numerous subdivisions of this type 
of primitive attitude toward puberty are too complex to be 
adequately summed up in the following brief account. A few 
tendencies, merely, can be indicated. Since the majority of 
writers in this field emphasize the attitude of "impurity," 
"uncleanness," horror and the like, it may be well to take up 
this aspect first. 

1. Theory of Impurity 

By artificial analysis only can the idea of impurity of this 
function be distinguished from mystery, since the two are almost 
everywhere interrelated. As we shall see, in dealing with "Sex 
Discrimination, ' ' the taboos enforced upon the adolescent girl do 
not differ in kind from those imposed on various other social 
types, such as warriors, priests, mourners, invalids, pregnant 
women, fathers and husbands, shamans, students, adolescent 
boys, and a comprehensive list of individuals passing from one 
stage of life, or station, to the other, as shown by van Gennep, 
and, later, by Samter. The ' ' impurity ' ' incurred by the girl at 
puberty is not, then, an isolated instance, but must be studied in 
relation to the complex problem of sacred objects and taboo- 
violation. Hence, it may be pointed out that all the cases cited 
by Ploss, under the heading "Menstrual blood as impure" (62. 
1 : 249-267 ) , as well as innumerable other instances, may, more 
fittingly, be cited under "Menstrual blood as taooo." 

As Jevons remarks, when a thing is taboo, it is charged with 
mysterious energy; "the action of taboo is always mechanical; 
contact with the tabooed object communicates the taboo-infec- 
tion the intentions of the taboo-breaker have no effect 

upon the action of the taboo. ' ' ( Cited in 96. 1 : 233. ) Instead 
of the action of taboo being mechanical, it seems to resemble such 
biological phenomena as the infection of bacteria. This infection 
may pertain to the most sacred and holy objects, mere touching 
of which demands ceremonial purification," no less searching 



20 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

than that relating to menstruation. For details of purification 
required after touching sacred animals, sacrifices, etc., one may 
consult Frazer. ( 26. II : 27-29. ) 

Ploss gives numerous examples of the feeling of impurity of 
menstruation in the ancient world, but omits many striking 
cases where no such feeling is present. (62. 1: 255-259.) Until 
touched by Mohammedanism, the races about the Mediterranean 
seem to have had no special regard for this function. The Vedic 
Brahmans (represented by the Nambuthiris) did not seclude 
their women, nor regard menstruation as unclean; and their 
spiritual descendants keep up this primitive attitude in the midst 
of a district where the idea of impurity is almost universal. (42. 
11:288.) The Laws of Manu took notice of menstruation only 
where the girl, on reaching puberty, was unmarried. So, among 
the Syrians, though we have no direct evidence as to the most 
ancient customs, it is probable that the Syrians in the Cochin 
district, who, in other respects, hold to their primitive conditions, 
are representative in this matter also. Here, at the first menstru- 
ation, and thereafter, there is no seclusion, nor impurity; the 
girl "conducts herself in such way that nobody knows anything 
about it" (p. 448). 

Passing to the modern world, we note both presence and 
absence of the idea of impurity in widely different areas; the 
latter has been, for the most part, ignored. Ploss states that 
the belief that menstruation is impure goes all through Africa. 
(62. 1 : 263. ) That this is far from the facts can be seen by 
reference to the list of African tribes that pay no attention to 
puberty, some of them the most primitive. There is, moreover, 
some evidence that absence of menstruation is considered impure, 
or malign. "With the Baganda, the girl in whom this function 
was absent had a pernicious influence on gardens, and was 
subject to certain restrictions. Her husband, before he went 
to battle, pierced her slightly with his spear; otherwise, he 
would be sure to fall. (66 : 80.) So, with the Cochin Devangas, 
the girl before puberty is subject to food-restrictions, and is 
not permitted to touch food, or any vessel in the house of her 
husband's family. (42. 11:370.) Among the Endo-speaking 
peoples of Nigeria, the girl undergoes no seclusion, while 
mourners are held in superstitious dread, and are subject to 
numerous restrictions. (Thomas, Endo-Speak. Peoples of Nig., 



van waters: adolescent girl 21 

Lond., 1910, pp. 28-29.) The peoples of Abyssinia (Negroid, 
Semitic and Hamitic), under the influence of conflicting and 
borrowed religions, recognize an elaborate ceremonial unclean- 
ness, and go to extreme degrees of protecting chastity, such as 
infibulation and circumcision. Here is noted the "unbounded 
influence of the cult of the Virgin and a pagan goddess." 
.(Littmann, in 19. 1:58.) Among the Bantu Bondei, girls are 
secluded for twelve days, and, in their "puberty "-ceremonial 
there is a maximum of beating, burning and reviling, physical 
operations, etc., with the object of purifying the girl, and 
preparing her for marriage. (Dale, in J. Anthrop. Inst., Lond., 
vol. 25, p. 193.) This author notes that the ceremony is not 
so elaborate now as formerly. While it might appear that the 
maximum sex-emphasis was withdrawing under the influence 
of civilizing contact, on the other hand, it is interesting to note 
that circumcision, etc., is a late development among the Bantu. 
(Thomas, in 22. II: 52.) Similarly, it is held that their warlike 
qualities are of recent origin. 

With the Nandi of East Africa, girls are secluded two months 
and undergo intricate rites of purification, yet, in the course of 
their circumcision-ceremony, they wear the garments, imple- 
ments and decorations of the warriors, showing that their condi- 
tion is not considered impure. When these are thrown away, 
it is because the girl has winced during the operation, or has 
failed to pass certain ordeals of courage, and not because of 
uncleanness. (Hollis, The Nandi, Lond., 1909, pp. 57-82.) The 
long seclusion of the girls of the Vai of Liberia in the ' ' greegree 
bush," for pedagogical and social instruction, carries with it 
no idea of impurity; exactly the same kind of seclusion is 
undergone by the boys. ( 9. II : 308-314. Cf . II : 729-754. ) 

The Mendi have a special ceremony relating to simulated 
death and resurrection of adolescents, who are believed to be 
under the influence of the devil, and in need of purification. 
(61. 11:718.) But this purification extends to boys as well 
as girls, hence, it can be no indication of belief in impurity of 
menstruation. 

Among African peoples who subject the girl to some sort of 
taboo, because of her unclean condition, are the Kafirs, with 
whom she is forbidden to touch or drink milk, though she is 
not secluded, nor is any special attention paid to her. (Kidd, 



22 JOURNAL OF EELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Savage Childhood, Lond., 1906, p. 103.) "With boys, however, 
all clothes and everything touched during the seclusion of two 
or three months must be burned. (Kicld, The Essent. Kafir, 
1904, p. 208.) 

Australia presents the theory of impurity in its extremest 
form. During menstruation, the girl is kept half-a-mile from 
camp. She wears boughs of some tree of her totem, to warn 
men of her condition. She is constantly watched and guarded, — 
"the reason for this is the dread with which they regard the 
menstrual period of women." If a man should see a woman 
in this condition, he would die, and the woman would be killed, 
if she let herself be seen. (41: 776-777.) Yet the red clay and 
ocher deposits, highly esteemed for decorative purposes, are 
attributed to the catamenia of two supernatural women, who 
formerly traveled over that district. (85:442-464.) The same 
fluid is believed also to possess medicinal and invigorating prop- 
erties. Evidence for this belief elsewhere may be found in 
Ploss. (62. 1:267-268.) It would be interesting to trace the 
primitive forshadowing here of glandular therapy in modern 
scientific experimentation. 

Turning to Asia, we find the greatest contrasts, from the com- 
plete indifference of the Veddas, to the elaborate modes of 
purification in the Cochin district. The Chams celebrate puberty 
in girls with a two-days festival, followed by three months of 
seclusion, purification, etc. The girl is not considered impure; 
her social position is that of all Cham women the highest after 
the priests. ( Cabaton, in 22. Ill : 345. ) Very generally in the 
Cochin district, the girl is believed to be assailed by demons at 
the time of puberty. These are guarded against, or expelled, 
by seclusion, fasting, bathing, processions, purification by the 
priest, offerings, magic, exorcism, etc. The Chedans place a 
special twig against the menstrual hut. (42. 11:372.) The 
Kakkalans pay a magician, or panan, who uses exorcism, if 
necessary (p. 381). The Kammalans bathe constantly during 
seclusion, and, when it is ended, the caste-priest cleans the room, 
purifying it with water and cow-dung. (42. 1:345.) Among 
the Kaniyans, the girl, on the first day of menstruation, becomes 
outeasted, " cliandalini," — she is unclean and abhorred. At 
each recurring period, she is secluded, must eat no meat, must 
wear no ornaments or flowers; she must not clean her teeth or 



van waters: adolescent giel 23 

chew betel-leaves ; she must use no scent ; she must not weep, nor 
sleep in the day-time. At the end of her four-day seclusion, 
after the first menstruation, she is bathed, dressed in cloth dyed 
yellow with turmeric; there is a feast with music, dancing, 
and elaborate ceremonial. The girl makes an offering of a 
triangular bark-figure, decorated with cocoanut-leaves and 
lighted candles, and sprinkled with the blood of a fowl; this is 
floated down the stream or tank, after washing. During seclu- 
sion, the girl is visited only by her girl friends, but, at the 
end of the period, a woman waves a vessel with water and lime 
and turmuric powder around the girl 's face, to drive out demons. 
Four pieces of bread are thrown by a woman to the four corners 
of the house, to invoke the blessing of the deities of the four 
cardinal points. (42. 1:200-207.) But even here, where im- 
purity is so much emphasized, the function is also conceived as 
possessing peculiar supernatural value. Parents of the girl, at 
the first appearance of puberty, consult Hindu astrologers, who 
predict the girl's entire career from the nature of the blood- 
drops (p. 203). Among the Oddens, girls are secluded fifteen 
days is a special hut, in which are placed iron and magic plants, 
to warn off demons. A fowl is killed on the seventh day, 
waved in front of the girl, and then thrown away. She must 
bathe in water which has passed through a seive. Eggs are 
eaten, but she must not eat meat, for fear of demons. (42. 
11:391.) Among some of the Pulayants is found the belief 
that the menses are caused by demons. At the end of seven-days 
seclusion, seven cocoanuts are broken, and the milk poured over 
the girl's head. Gifts are distributed to seven girl friends, and 
to the caste men. A special singing ceremony is performed, 
with pipe and drum accompaniment, by a paid assistant, to cast 
out demons. The girl leaps with frantic movements, if 
possessed with demons, which are driven into a tree and nailed 
down by the priests. Offerings are then hung upon the nail. 
If the girl has no demons, she stands still during the ceremony. 
(42. 1:98-99.) 

Among the Pullavans, the girl friends of the novice make these 
offerings, which have power to release the girl from the influence 
of demons (p. 146). Among the Tamil Brahmans, there is 
seclusion, but the idea of impurity is not apparent. Announce- 
ment is sent to the girl's friends, who come to visit her; she 



24 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

stands on a grass mat, is dressed in red, and has a red mark 
placed on her forehead. She and her friends are sumptuously 
feasted; later, there is music and a procession. The girls are 
paid for their services. (42. II: 291.) The Velans secluded the 
girl in one part of the family hut for four days, and consider 
her in a state of pollution. An important element in the cere- 
mony, however, is the singing of puberty-songs by all the caste 
men. A legend, told by the Velans, illustrates the curious 
mixture of ideas of impurity, the supernatural and the beautiful, 
that may center in this function, even with so poor and miserable 
a people: 

A girl, during her period, was standing by a stream, lamenting the 
spoiling of her cloth. She implored the aid of the god, Parameswara, 
who suddenly appeared. He sprinkled water upon the cloth, which flew 
into the sky, and became a beautiful constellation. From a few more 
drops, sprinkled by the god, a man appeared, to whom was assigned 
the duty of washing clothes for the girls during menstruation. (42. 1: 
156-157.) 

Among the Indians of North and South America, the girl, at 
the beginning of puberty, is rarely regarded as impure in the 
same sense as with the people of the Cochin district. Her 
closeness to supernatural powers is recognized, and the 
importance of what she does at this period is strongly empha- 
sized, but the taboos and restrictions, which are placed upon 
her, spring from social, religious and pedagogical motives, in- 
stead of isolated belief in the impurity of menstruation. Certain 
traces of this theory, however, do occur. Among the Carrier 
Indians (Dene), Morice reports that the pubescent girl is called 
"sak oesta," i.e., the "one that stays apart," while the father 
of the girl distributes gifts, "to wash out his shame." (58. 
V : 975. ) Among other peoples, the custom of gift-distribution 
at the girl's puberty-ceremony is described as caused by the 
desire to set a good example to the girls, to make them 
generous, etc. (Cf. the potlatch of the N.W. tribes, etc.) With 
certain of the other Denes, the girl is rigorously secluded, and 
called "asta," while in confinement, or "she that stays in a 
hole." Her seclusion may last from one to three years; fish 
and meat are taboo ; and her magic defilement of game is so 
great that she must not bathe in streams or lakes during this 
period. We learn, however, that the same taboos are imposed 
upon warriors for their first four campaigns. If a youth is weak 



van waters: adolescent girl 25 

or delicate, the adolescent girl is called upon to tattoo lines on 
his wrists or ankles, as a therapeutic measure (pp. 971-975, 
p. 978). Hence, we see that the attitude toward the girl is not 
solely that she is impure, because of her condition. With the 
Maidu of California, as with many other peoples, the girl is 
subject to a limited seclusion, i. e., she emerges at certain periods, 
to mingle freely with the guests and relatives, who attend the 
puberty-festival. During the day, she remains within the 
menstrual hut, or receives training in the forest ; at night, she is 
free to dance, sing and feast. (18:233.) Later, the husband 
of the girl, during her menstruation, must live on the same 
food that she does, and is debarred from hunting (p. 239). 

Consequences of violation of the menstrual taboo shed some 
light upon the attitude toward this function. The Aleuts (of 
Eskimoan stock) seclude the girl for seven days, and strictly 
prohibit any man from seeing her. Violation of this taboo by 
men is a common folk-lore motif, the offender being usually 
the brother. On being pursued, they jump into the sea and 
become the first sea-otters, or other animals. (Chamberlain, in 
19. 1:303.) Thus they become, though outcast, the source of 
benefit to the people ; in other words, they are punished, but are 
not objects of loathing. In the legends of the Coos Indians, we 
find the girl as source of a new food-supply, or culture-factor; 
before this occurs, she is always subject to some unusual event 
or influence; she refuses to marry, or violates some custom of 
her people. Then she disappears, and the people find whales in 
the sea, an abundance of deer in the forest, etc. (St. Clair, in 
J. Amer. Folk-Lore, 1909, v. 22, p. 25.) The taboo-mo^/ is 
not so explicit here, as is the recognition of value in the uncon- 
ventional, or unusual quality in the girl herself. It is the 
primitive counterpart of the role in the folk-lore of civilized 
races played by the ' ' virgin ' ' or the ' ' virgin 's son. ' ' — as Havelock 
Ellis points out, the word "virgin" applied to a woman who 
preferred to remain outside the patriarchal family, among the 
ancient "Aryans," thus violating convention. (20:165.) 
Frequently such a character is attributed to female deities. 
Violation of menstrual taboo among the Shoshone Indians is 
followed by death. If a man, or even a woman, should see 
the girl during her menstrual seclusion, they would sicken and 
die by vomiting. (50: 214.) This represents the extreme form 



26 JOUKNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

of belief in impurity, yet, as we have already seen, the Shoshone 
attribute menstruation to the causal act of Coyote, who with 
this people, as often elsewhere, plays the role of half-god or 
culture-hero. 

2. Theory of Mystery 

In the attitude of mystery toward the girl, we distinguish two 
main types. In one, the girl is influenced, during this period, 
by mysterious forces, is surrounded by a peculiar atmosphere, 
that may affect her entire life. These forces may work the 
greatest injury, or insure her success for the future. Everything 
that she does, or is done to her, has a determining effect upon 
her future condition. The actions of others, even apart from 
her, may influence the result. In the other type, the girl is the 
source of these mysterious forces, or the medium through which 
they flow. She is the involuntary, or voluntary cause of danger 
or well-being to others. The social fact of her condition is the 
one emphasized. Both kinds of attitude may, of course, occur 
among the same people, and even in the same ceremony. But 
each has been given separate expression. A few typical illustra- 
tions will be sufficient. 

Among the African A-Kamba, "a girl's first menstruation is 
a very critical period of her life." If this condition appears 
while she is at work in the fields, she must return home immedi- 
ately treading on grass, never on a path, for, if a stranger should 
accidentally "tread on the spot of blood, and then cohabit with 
a member of the opposite sex, before the girl was better again, 
it is believed that she would never bear a child. ' ' She will also 
be doomed to perpetual sterility, unless, when her period is over, 
her mother has ceremonial intercourse with her father. ( 39 : 65. ) 
The Anyanya have a special re-naming ceremony, in order to 
deceive spirits, who seek to obtain possession, but always call 
the victims by the childish name. (94: 124-128.) Belief in the 
necessity of death aud resurrection ceremonials to circumvent 
the baneful influence of spirits at the period of adolescence is 
widespread in Africa, as Ploss notes. (61. 11:717-718.) 
Ceremonies of re-birth are co mm on. (15.) Among the 
A-Kikuyu, however, the ceremony of re-birth is not a puberty- 
rite, but is undergone by both sexes between the ages of five and 
eight, and must be accomplished before circumcision. (Rout- 
ledge, With a Prehist. People, Lond., 1910, p. 151.) We must 



van waters: adolescent girl 27 

guard, therefore, against the assertion that all rites of this 
sort are related to puberty. Acquisition of special deities, or 
guardian spirits, by girls, at the time of first menstruation, 
indicates the native belief in the need of peculiar safe-guards at 
this period. Both the Ashanti and the Cross River tribes of 
Southern Nigeria believe in this supernatural protection. 
Partridge, Cross R. Natives, Lond., 1905, pp. 169-216.) In 
general, it seems that the supernatural type of theory appears 
only sporadically in Africa, the attitude being, for the most 
part, that this function marks the beginning of a period of 
training, which is now especially efficacious. 

In Asia, the most complete type of supernatural belief is 
found in the rites of divination practiced in the Cochin district, 
and among the ancient Hindus. Here, a mysterious affinity is 
supposed to exist between the girl's destiny and the nature of 
the first menstruation. An elaborate sort of horoscope is drawn 
up, on the basis of the roundness, squareness, irregularity, thick- 
ness, size, color, etc., of the blood-drops. This is described in 
great detail by Iyer. (42. 1:203-207. See also Kiseh, Sexual 
Life of Woman, N. Y., 1910.) 

Among the American Indians, the culmination of the super- 
natural attitude is reached, although extreme modes of treatment 
are not equally common. Some peoples, as do the Delaware 
Indians, believe that the soul enters the body, or becomes mature, 
only at puberty. During childhood it is weak and timid, and 
only later arrives at independence. Belief that the first menstru- 
ation is caused by the bite of a snake is reported by Nordenskiold 
from the Chiriguano and Mataco Indian of the Gran Chaco 
(60: 107, 210), and by Koch-Griinberg from some of the tribes 
of Brazil. 46: 91-100.) Ploss cites similar beliefs from British 
Guiana, New Guinea, Portugal, certain parts of Germany, etc. 
(62. 1: 251.) Sometimes it is not a snake, but another reptile, 
such as the lizard, crocodile, etc. Among the Tupian Chiri- 
guanos of Bolivia, during the girl's seclusion, women beat the 
walls with sticks in order to drive away "the snake that has 
wounded her," according to a missionary account cited by 
Crawley. ( 14 : 10. ) The women of the Cariban Macusi Indians 
fear to go into the forest during menstruation for dread of a 
snake, who may assume the role of lover (62. II: 334.) Certain 
Australians are said to attribute menstruation to the scratch of 



28 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

a bandicoot. (J. Anthr. hist., v. 24, p. 177.) In New Britain, 
it is traced to the bite of a sacred bird, or other supernatural 
being. (62. 11:330-334.) It is not clear whether the wound 
has been given through love or malevolence ; it inspires feelings 
of profound mystery, and causes the girl to be treated as half 
invalid and half shaman. 

A rare direct reference to the physiological relation between 
menstruation and child-bearing occurs with the Yuchi Indians 
and is touched with the supernatural. The Yuchi attribute their 
origin to the Sun deity, who was in her period; some blood fell 
to the ground, she looked, and a small baby was sitting there, — 
"this was the father of the Indians, who are Yuchi, children 
of the sun." Both the girl and the husband are subject to 
restrictions, must eat on dishes which are subsequently broken, 
must touch no common property; the girl is secluded in a 
menstrual hut. In the initiation ceremony of the boys, and an 
important rite at other times for all males, is scarification until 
blood falls to the ground. This is symbolical of the Sun- 
Mother's blood, from which the first Yuchi was created. 
(83:96, 106-115.) Here, the supernatural element is clear; 
taboos follow from this "mystery," and not from uncleanness of 
the menstrual function. 

The numerous ways in which the two types of supernatural 
forces may operate will become more apparent in the list of 
native explanations of "puberty "-customs. A few typical cases 
may be cited now. Among some of the Prairie tribes of Algon- 
kian stock, girls may be subjected to hard usage during child- 
hood, and at puberty go through ordeals, especially those who 
will become shamans. A girl, by this usage, becomes a healer, 
and the bringer of good-fortune to her people; she ensures to 
women safe-delivery in child-birth. (Owen, in 22. 1:323.) 
Among the Athapaskan Indians of the South-West, when the 
girl arrives at puberty, there is an important ceremony, in which 
the girl and a boy dramatically represent for four nights the 
culture-hero, and his grandmother. The story of the racial 
origin is enacted; the girl becomes Yolkaiisdzan, the "holy 
girl." This ceremony is performed, "to bring good fortune to 
the whole community" and to secure for the girl a happy and 
honorable life. It is by far the most important social event of 
these tribes. ( 30 : 168-171 ; 31 : 266-268. ) 



van waters: adolescent girl 29 

With the Shasta Indians of California, the adolescent girl is 
of the utmost significance to the whole people. The Shastan 
puberty-ceremony for girls is one of the most elaborate in the 
world : 

For ten days the girl is secluded; she wears a blue- jay feather head- 
dress, so that she cannot see the sun or moon, she must use a scratch-stick, 
must not let her feet touch the earth, she< must not jcome near a fire, 
nor see people; she must not hurry, nor get excited; she is subject to 
numerous food-regulations, she must drink only water that has been warmed 
and into which a little clay has been stirred. She must sleep very little, 
and only just before dawn. She must sleep with her head in a basket, 
or cap, to obviate bad dreams; a small stick is placed across the end 
to keep off evil spirits, and each day this is burned and renewed. All 
the time she is in the hut she must sit facing the east, holding a deer-foot 
rattle in her hand and shaking it from time to time. Toward the end 
of the strict seclusion, a mitigated seclusion for another ten days begins. 
Each day the girl goes into the mountains for firewood for the festivities, 
and for each family in the village; each night there is a dance and feast 
for all the neighboring villages; the girl must dance constantly; when 
she is exhausted, she is supported, and, as the nights wear on, she becomes 
more and more in need of support, through fasting, hard daily work and 
excitement. On the last night complete license is given to both sexes. 
Finally, the ceremony culminates in a war-dance, danced by all; the girl 
and her mother bathe, and are given entirely new clothes. The ten-day 
ceremony is repeated for the next two periods, during which the entire 
community is kept at the parents' expense; only at the end is the girl 
declared marriageable. 

In addition to the social stress, the supernatural element is 
most vividly present: 

"Whatever she dreams of during this period she confides to her mother, 
and all of these dreams are bound to come true. Should she be so 
unfortunate as to dream of the death of any person in the village, or 
of a general conflagration, the only way the calamity can be averted is to 
burn the unfortunate girl alive. . . . This sacrifice has several times 
been made. The girl is decked with all the finery the family possesses, 
and made to leap into the center of a huge fire built by members of the 
family." (17: 457-461.) 

With the Tlingit Indians, the girl had power to influence the 
luck of a fisher, hunter or gambler, and she could turn objects 
to stone. She was peculiarly close to the world of spirits; if 
a near relative had recently died, she fasted for eight days, on 
reaching puberty, and lived a "quiet life" for eight months 
thereafter; this would ensure the re-birth of the dead individual 
in the girl 's first child, though her marriage might not take place 



30 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

for some time. (Swanton, in 26th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. 
Ethnol, pp. 393-485.) 

This belief, that the girl is close to the powers of life and 
death, is found in other parts of the world as well. In New 
Caledonia, though there are no puberty-rites, if the chief is ill, 
when the girl reaches maturity, she is severely beaten, in order 
to drive evil away from him. (MacCulloch, in 22. II: 229.) 

So, among the Greenland Eskimo, if the girl wishes her child 
to be small, she wears at puberty a kittiwake-head sewed into her 
clothes, for this bird lays very small and beautiful eggs. (Lowie, 
in 19. 111:401.) A taboo among the Siouan Assiniboine 
illustrates the native belief in danger to the girl herself of too 
near an approach to "mystery." For the first four days, the 
girl is secluded; her clothes are then burned, and her dishes 
thrown away, but there are no food-restrictions, nor subsequent 
menstrual seclusion. The one taboo is that she must never go 
into a house where a ' ' medicine-bundle ' ' is kept ; if she violated 
this, she would continue to menstruate indefinitely. (Lowie, 
in Anthrop. Pap. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., 1909, p. 39.) 
Among the Lillooet, Thompson and Shuswap Indians (Salishan) 
of British Columbia, the conception of the period of puberty 
as the crucial opportunity for spiritual influences that will 
determine the course of the girl's life, both personal and racial, 
reaches a very high and thoroughly human expression. Here, 
the various aspects of puberty, physical, esthetic, pedagogical, 
religious and social, receive effective emphasis, without over- 
strain. "With these peoples, both sexes go into training, the lads, 
when the voice begins to break, remaining from one to eight 
or ten years; the girls, at the first menstruation, for a period 
of not less than one year, nor more than four years, "according 
to their oivn inclinations, or the wish of their parents." The 
part played in primitive " puberty "-ceremonies by the volition 
of the girl herself is usually ignored by writers on this topic, 
yet, as in this case, it is often the determining factor. One object 
of training is to secure a manitou, or guardian spirit. Twins, 
however, do not train to acquire manitous, as they have them 
already. {89:589.) 

After the first menstruation, and during the long training, the girl is 
considered "mystery." She lives in a small lodge, conical in shape, 
built of fir-branches, and apart from her people. She eats sparingly, 
fasting for long periods; she sleeps little, usually in the early morning. 



van waters: adolescent girl 31 

While she is in her lodge, she constantly busies herself with the manu- 
facture of small articles, baskets, bags, mats, bead and feather work, 
and she manufactures twine, and various kinds of leather objects; all 
these are hung in the trees, near the lodge, or at the crossing of two 
trails. She goes through the operations of skin-dressing, and plucks fir- 
needles as fast as possible, in order to make her fingers nimble. Practice 
of all the arts and industries required of her in future years is believed 
now to have a peculiarly effective value. At dusk, she wandered about, 
and spent every night in the mountains, praying, running, leaping, climb- 
ing trees, gathering firewood, digging trenches, occasionally lighting signal- 
fires, practicing carrying heavy burdens, etc. She would climb to the 
top of great firs and break off the tops, that her son might! be strong 
and skilful. She played with gambling-sticks, so that her future husband 
might have luck. At day-break, she bathed in running water, washing 
herself with fir-branches, and praying to the Dawn. She had to be back 
in her lodge before it was light; if caught too far to return, she screened 
herself with fir-branches, for only her attendant was supposed to see her 
face during her training. During this period, she wore a large robe 
painted red on breasts and sides; among some tribes, her face and body 
were painted also. She wore her hair in a knot, with a willow head-band, 
instead of the buckskin band, for deer would be displeased, and, in future 
yeprs give her head-ache. She used a scratch-stick, drinking-tube, and 
wooden comb, as did the adolescent boys and warriors. Girls "placed 
little heaps of dry fir-needles on their wrists and arms, to which they set 
fire, meanwhile praying that they might be enabled to withstand pain of 
all kinds, but especially that of child-birth. (89: 588.) Usually they 
thus scarred both wrists and both forearms. At night, she sometimes 
ran with heavy stones held close to her body, and, as she dropped them, 
prayed for safe-delivery in child-birth. During the middle, or toward 
the end of their training-period, girls made pictures with paint, or 
engraved them on the rocks. These were mostly of objects seen in their 
dreams, and the painting was supposed to hasten the attainment of the 
"manitou," or other desires. Among the Shuswap, boys made these 
pictures as well as girls. With this people : ' ' Both boys and girls gathered 
lice, which they enclosed in a horse-tail reed and set adrift on a stream, 
at the same time praying to the Day Dawn that, in after years, 'they 
might have no lice. This was done on four consecutive mornings." (89: 
590.) And here also: "Both boys and girls were carefully watched from 
childhood, and not allowed to smoke or have sexual connection until after 
their periods of training." Usually the girls did not marry until from 
one to three years afterward. In cases where either sex decided to take 
up the role of the other, this assumption came at the end of the training- 
period, before the individual resumed the normal routine of life. In this 
case there was no . marriage, the girl returning in man 's dress, and vice 
versa (pp. 265-267). 

From the details of this training, cited at some length, 
although much has been omitted, it is apparent how erroneous 



32 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

are the conclusions of those who emphasize any one aspect only 
of the conception of puberty found among savages. The com- 
plexity is great, ranging from the most common-place facts of 
daily life to the mysteries of religion. Sex does not dominate 
here completely, as so often asserted. The human element is 
supreme. The same belief in the magic power of youth guides 
the hand that pushes forth the vermin-laden craft and the 
hand that seeks to express in art, as did the ancient cave-dwellers, 
the dream and longings of the human spirit. 

IV. Variation in Degrees op Attention Paid to Puberty of 
Girls 

A. Absence, or Seeming Absence, of "Puberty "-Ceremonies 
The following peoples, apparently, have no " puberty "-cere- 
monies for girls (where the authorities consulted are in doubt, 
this is indicated by ( ? ) , and that the occurrence of such cere- 
monies is not mentioned is indicated by (#)). 

1. Africa : Ababdes (nose-ring is given, if betrothed), Anyasa of E. 
Central Africa, Bantu (some in S. Africa, though usually having maximum 
amount), Bechuanas (a few), Endo-speaking tribes (no notice, unless mar- 
ried), Ewe-speaking tribes (some), Kafirs (rites formerly extreme, now 
being abandoned), Kilimandjaro district (some), Madagascar (rites now 
falling into disuse with some tribes), SuJc (those living near Turkana give 
up circumcision, mutilation, etc., so that, in time of war, they may not 
be conspicuous; Tshi-speaTcing (some x). 

2. Asia: Alioms (Thai Shans; no notice of poor girls; those of priestly 
clan, Deodhai, tattooed with star), Annamese, Cochin tribes and castes 
(Chedans, before puberty cannot eat meat or touch food in husband's 
house; Nambuthiris, no rites or seclusion; Nattu, marriage must take 
place before; Panans; Pulayans of Thanda; Syrians; Velans, very poor 
dispense with rites, — in the Cochin area every variety of attitude toward 
puberty occurs, from complete ignoring to extreme ritual and seclusion), 
Kadars (tooth-chipping performed from age of ten to puberty), Khasis, 
Lolos of Kientchang (absolute freedom), Lushei-Kuki clans (Tibeto-Bur- 
man), Pagan races of Malay Peninsula (in general), TangTchuls, Todas, 
Veddas (Forest and Eock). 

3. Indonesia, Australia, Polynesia: Australian Narrinyeri (x), 
Australian South-East tribes (mutilate the little ringer, but no relation 
to puberty, x), Bontoc Igorot, Ceram Laut, Easter I., Eastern Is. of 
Torres Sts., Fijians, Ealabits (x) , Kayans, Eoita, Marshall Is. (rites only 
for chief's daughter), Massim, Melanesians (some), Muruts, New Britain 
(none for very poor, extreme in case of rich), New Caledonia (x), New 
Guinea (some), Philippine Is. (some), Boro-speaTcing tribes, Samoa (com- 



VAN WATERS \ ADOLESCENT GIRL 33 

plete freedom), Subanuns, Tasmanians, Tubetube, Wagawaga (x), Waima, 
Wamira, Yule I. 

4. North America: Blackfoot, Chumash (/), Costanoan {?), Cree 
(Eastern; x), Crow (marriage usually before puberty; if not, on first 
appearance of puberty, girl is "joked"), EsTcimo (no rites, and, in 
general, little attention; Baffin Land, Central Eskimo, Greenland, Ungava), 
Euichol (Mexico), Miwolc, Navaho (some) Patwin (x), Salinan {?), Sia, 
Tarahumares (Mexico), YoTcuts {?), Zufii. 

5. South America: Chorotis (of Gran Chaco), Karajd, Quechuas (of 
Potosi, etc.) ? Sio Pilcomayo tribes (some). 

B. Minimum Degree of Attention 

Peoples paying a minimum degree of attention to puberty of 
girls : 

1. Africa: Anyanja (re-naming; festivity lasts one day), Ashanti 
(girls acquire fetish, or guardian-spirit, who cares for them until married; 
they drag it from the bush, and make offerings of milk on reaching 
puberty, but without special ceremony), Baganda (great variation; some 
have feast merely), Bantu (great variation; some have limited seclusion, 
feasts, etc.)> Becliuanas (some, only limited seclusion), Endo-speaking 
tribes (seclusion, if married), Ewe-speaking tribes (some, seclusion during 
menstruation, instruction), Mpongwe (initiation into Njembe society, a 
primitive "woman's rights organization," may take place at puberty, of 
before, 63. II: 243-245) ; initiation varies from a few hours, etc., to 
several weeks), TsM-speaMng tribes (some tribes celebrate with songs, 
offerings, and washing-ceremony), Wambuga of German W. Africa (fire- 
tests of chastity). 

2. Asia: Burmese (teeth blackened; ears must be bored), Chamars 
(tattooing), Cochin tribes and castes (Pulayans, "leaf marriage" cere- 
mony to Thanda plant; southern Taluks, limited seclusion, feast; Vari- 
yars, three-day seclusion feast, offering), MiTcir tribes of Bhoi (tattoo, 
change of mode of dress), Naga tribes (tattoo, food-taboos; while opera- 
tion is going on, girl lives in another village, away from home), Nicobar 
Is. (teeth blackened, dilatation of ear-lobe), Orang-Laut (no ceremonies, 
but occasional limited seclusion, shaving, scarification, tooth-filing, etc., not 
necessarily connected with puberty), Siamese (head is shaved). 

3. Indonesia, Australasia, Polynesia: New Britain (girls of "middle 
class are secluded for a few days only; range here from no ceremony, 
through intermediate stages, to maximum seclusion of ten years), New 
Caledonia (no rites; but, if chief is ill, when girl reaches puberty, she 
is severely beaten), New Guinea (some) tribes (no rites, but scars cut on 
girl's chest, when her brother spears his first dugong), Philippine Is. 
(some), Wamira (no notice of puberty now; formerly taboos and se- 
clusion). 



34 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

4. North America: Hopi of Athapascan stock (marriage usually coin- 
cides; girl works hard four days at home of her mother-in-law; has new 
hair-arrangement), Klamath (girls compose puberty-songs as acts of court- 
ship), Lillooet of Salishan stock (formerly elaborate ceremonies, now 
passing into disuse), LTcuhgen of Salishan stock (food-taboos offerings), 
Maidu of California (no ceremony if girl is married before puberty), 
Navaho (some; no seclusion, but girls may undergo admission to secret 
society), NootTca (special costume and decoration; girls may take part in 
Wolf ritual, but not necessarily at puberty), Tahltan of Athapascan stock 
(ceremony, not now strictly observed), Yuchi (menstrual seclusion), Zuni 
(no ceremony but girl works hard on day of first menstruation), Eskimo 
(Bering Sts. Unalit, girl rests four days in family hut, — formerly there 
existed a forty-day seclusion, belief in magic, taboos, etc., as with the 
neighboring Malemut; Central Eskimo, tattooing at age of twelve; Hud- 
son Bay Eskimo, tattooing, four days' operation away from camp, and, 
when girl returns, "it is known that she has begun to menstruate " ; in 
general, only those Eskimo who have come into contact with the Indians, 
particularly the Athapaskan tribes, pay attention to the phenomena of 
puberty, though limited seclusion during menstruation and child-birth is 
frequent) . 

5. South America: AsMuslays of Gran Chaco (no seclusion or idea 
of impurity; dance is held for all the tribe), Gran Chaco tribes (some; 
feast, decoration, dance), Karajd (no rites, face is painted), Tehuelches 
(dance, feast), TJaupes tribes (some; feast, decoration, food-taboos). 



C. Intermediate Degree of Attention 

The following peoples may be said to pay an intermediate 
degree of attention to the puberty of girls. 

1. Africa: Anyanja of L. Nyasa (festivity of several days, decoration, 
instruction; 94: 126-127), Bafiote (isolation, fire-ordeal; 61. II: 717), 
Baganda (some; seclusion, scarification, instruction; 66: 79-81), Bawenda 
(physical training, etc., Tondo school; The Bawenda of S. Africa, Lond., 
1908, pp. 61-62), Egyptian (infibulation; Lane. Mod. Egypt., p. 71), 
Gola-Mendi (seclusion in hut, ceremony; 61. II: 717-718), Hottentots 
(fire-ordeal, formerly, extreme, — circumcision); 61. II: 717-718; Theal, 
Hist, and Ethnogr. S. Africa, Lond., 1907, 1: 49, 112-117), Tshi-speaTcing 
tribes of Gold Coast (some; songs, washings, offerings, etc.; Ellis, Tshi- 
spealc. Peop., Lond., 1887), Togo-land tribes (some, Ewe-speaking; seclusion, 
sacrificial offerings; girl carefully educated in arts, crafts and agriculture 
by mother; Spieth, Die Ewe-Stamme, Berlin, 1909, pp. 210, 454, 896), 
Zulus (seclusion, intermediate; special hut; she is attended by 12 or 14 
girls, who guard her; "no married man may come near the dwelling, 
and, should any one do so, he is beaten away by the girls, who attack 
him violently with sticks and stones; during her seclusion, the neophyte 
must on no account see or address any man, married or unmarried"; 



van waters: adolescent girl 35 

girls who attend her are free to have intercourse at end of the girl 'a 
first menstruation; at end of seclusion, girl bathes, and undergoes perfora- 
tion of the hymen by two old women; she is then considered a woman; 
Macdonald, in J. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 20, pp. 117-118). 

2, Asia: Andamanese (flower-names are given, according to season in 
which puberty is attained; 51: 60-67, 91), Cambodians (poor girls 9ecluded 
a few days, taboos, hair-cutting; Cabaton, in 22. Ill: 163), Chams (sere- 
monial, three-months' seclusion; Cabaton, Ibid., 345), Chinese (seclusion 
begins at puberty; girl then called "she who sits in the house), Cochin 
tribes and castes: Devangas (some; 15 days' seclusion, demons warned 
off; 42. II: 372), Eravallens (limited seclusion, taboo of seeing adult; 
Ibid., 45), Izhuvans (a fishing caste; seclusion, feast ceremonial; 42. 1: 
283-284), Nayars (high-caste Sudras; 4 days' seclusion; also maximum 
in thirandukuli ceremony; 42. II: 22-29), Pulayans (those near Cochin 
only; 7 days' seclusion, magic, exorcism, etc.; 42. 1: 98-99), Pulluvans 
(Izhuvans; 7 days' seclusion, religious rites; Ibid, 146), Volans (4 days' 
seclusion, no rites; formerly maximum, with rite of theraliklca, "causing 
puberty", now abandoned; Ibid., 235-236), Persia (both sides of Persian 
Gulf; infibulation may be performed during childhood; Niebuhr, p. 70), 
Sinhalese (menstrual seclusion, some restrictions, no rites? 77: 94), 
Veddas (Uniche; menstrual seclusion borrowed from Sinhalese, breaking 
of pot or dish placed on girl's head by female relative; 77: 94; Sarasin, 
72: 457-561, mentions none), Veddas (Village; menstrual seclusion, bor- 
rowed; 77: 94). 

3 Indonesia, Australasia, Polynesia: Australian: Otati, E. of Cape 
York Peninsula (seclusion for first period, burying in sand, painting; 75: 
206), Uiyumkwi of Red I., N. Queensland (same as for Otati; 75: 205), 
Wakelbua of the South-East (short seclusion, totem worn to warn men 
of her condition; 41: 776-777), Yaraikanna (northern; seclusion, taboos, 
restrictions, etc.; 75: 205); Muralug of Torres Sts. (two months' seclusion, 
ceremonial, food and sea taboo ; 75 : 204-207. — ' ' probably shows Australian 
characteristics," p. 205), Saibai of Torres Sts. (two weeks' seclusion, 
change of name, food-taboo; 75: 205-207, 34: 215), Wamira (formerly 
seclusion, taboos, etc., but all rites now abandoned; 75: 258-259). 

4. North America: Algonkian Prairie tribes (some; fasts, tests of 
endurance, seclusion for short period ; Owen, in 22. 1 : 323 ) , Assiniboine 
of Siouan stock (four days' seclusion only at puberty, gifts distributed, 
no use of scratch-stick, etc., as neighboring tribes do; Lowie, in Anthrop. 
Pap. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 19, p. 39), Cheyenne of Algonkian stock 
(four days' seclusion, purification, "smoking," hardening; 88. II: 314, — 
see also writings of G. B. Grinnell), CreeTcs of Muskhogean stock (seclu- 
sion, probable use of scratch-stick, drinking-reed, etc.; 7: 491), Foxes of 
Algonkian stock (religious and social, dances, painting; Owen, in 19. 1: 
323), Haida of Skittagetan stock (seclusion, also maximum in physical 
tests and hardening; 88: 314), Hupas of Athapaskan stock (seclusion, 



36 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

taboos, scratch-stick, ceremonial bathing; 32), Iroquois (seclusion, taboos; 
88: 314), Kickapoos of Algonkian stock (religious dancing, painting, 
social; Owen, in 22. 1: 323), Maidu of Northeast (seclusion during 
day only, taboos; 18: 236), Maidu of Sacramento Valley (ten days' 
limited seclusion, food-restrictions, purification; also a maximum with 
social, religious and esthetic aspects; 18: 232-239), Omaha of Siouan 
stock (rite open to girls, but not obligatory as with boys; also religious 
and social maximum with rite of Mozhizho, "Mark of Honor" ceremony 
in special cases; 25: 129), Pawnee of Caddoan stock (short seclusion, 
purification; reaches also maximum in feast and special honor paid to 
girl; 23: 26, also Grinnell, in Amer. Anthrop., N. S., v. 4, p. 281), Pima 
of Shoshonean stock (menstrual seclusion, taboo, use of scratch-stick, 
drinking-reed, etc.; 69: 162, 188, 204), Salishan tribes in general (se- 
clusion of ten days to one month, fast, taboos; J. Anthr. Inst., 1905, p. 
319), Saulteaux of Algonkian stock (seclusion during first menstruation, 
no food given; Skinner, in Anthrop. Pap. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1911, 
p. 152), Seri (tooth-evulsion and tattooing or painting hereditary designs, 
feast; among these Indians there are no rites, but erection of separate 
hut, — here a maximum of complete freedom is also reached, with the most 
exalted social status given to girl at puberty of any people studied ; 56 : 
11), Shasta (limited seclusion of ten days, food-taboos; also reaching a 
maximum of ceremonial and social observance, etc.; 17: 455-471), Shoshone 
(northern; seclusion, taboos, but sight of girl causes death; 50: 214, 239), 
Shuswap of Salishan stock (limited seclusion, restrictions; but reaching 
also a maximum of pedagogic social, and religious observance; 89: 587- 
592), Sta. Barbara (seclusion, scratch-stick of abalone-shell), Tahltan of 
Athapaskan stock (restriction and seclusion less in case girl is not daughter 
of rich man or chief; Emmons, in Univ. of Penn. Anthrop. Publ., 1911, 
p. 105), Takelma (few restrictions, limited seclusion, but puberty-dance 
is most important festival; 71: 237), Thompson Indians of Salishan stock 
(limited seclusions, restrictions, but reaching a pedagogical, etc. maximum 
similar to that of the Shuswap; 6: 227-230), Wintun of Copehan stock 
(limited seclusion, three days fast, but puberty-dance as great social event; 
64: 235-236), Yuchi (menstrual seclusion, but reaches maximum of re- 
ligious, social, ceremonial and traditional belief; 83: 96, 106-115), Zuni 
(no attention paid to menstruation, but maximum of initiation into Koti- 
kila fraternity may occur; 86: 93, 103, 294, 303), Eskimo peoples: Aleuts 
(seclusion in barrabarra for seven days, no one visits her but her slave, 
men tabooed; Chamberlain, in 22. 1: 303; see also 20: 88, 88: 314-315). 

5. South America: ArawaTcs (many tribes; seclusion, food-taboos, 
hardening, etc.; 61. 11: 717), Caribs (many tribes; seclusion, also reach- 
ing maximum of hardening, mutilation, etc.; Ibid., p. 428), Clxane (Ara- 
wakan tribe of Gran Chaco; seclusion in chest, or behind partition in 
family house; 60: 210), Chiriguano (Tupian tribe of Bolivia; hair cut 
short, dieting between first and second menstruation, seclusion; Ibid.), 
Coroados (seclusion, food- taboos; 61. II: 717), Mataco of Gran Chaco 
(seclusion, etc., attribution of menstruation to bite of snake; 60: 107). 



van waters: adolescent girl 37 

D. Maximum Degree of Attention 

Peoples who pay, in one way or another, a maximum degree 
of attention to the puberty of girls are the following : 

1. Africa: Abyssinians (physical; infibulation, circumcision, seclusion; 
Littmann, in 19. 1: 58), A-Kamba (physical and social; circumcision, 
tooth knocking and filing; 39: 18-71), Aklcra (physical and ceremonial; 
circumcision; 22. Ill: 667), A-Kikuyn of British East Africa (ceremonial, 
social and physical; circumcision; Eoutledge, Op. cit., pp. 151-161), 
Bamangivato (physical and ceremonial; circumcision; Gray, in 22. Ill: 
669), BambuTc (physical and social, entrance to secret society; 63. 1: 246), 
Bantu (some tribes; physical, circumcision, sex-emphasis; Theal, Op. cit., 
v. 1, pp. 112-116), Basuto (religious and esthetic; lustration; 57: 101- 
103; see also MacCulloch, in 22. II), Bechuanas (some tribes; physical; 
ordeals; circumcision, beating, seclusion; 61. II: 220-235; see also Joyce, 
in Encyclop. Britannica, 1911, v. 4, p. 604), Bondei (physical, social and 
pedagogical; circumcision, fire-ordeals, hardening; satire and reviling; 
Vihili secrets taught; Dale, in J. AntJirop. Inst., vol. 25, pp. 188-193), 
Cross River natives of Oburu district in Southern Nigeria (physical; 
circumcision, tooth-evulsion, fattening; girls at puberty have special 
guardian deity; Partridge, Cross Biver Natives, Lond., 1905, pp. 169-216), 
Galla peoples (physical; infibulation, circumcision; 87: 523), Kafirs of 
Pondo Land and interior (physical; circumcision, fire-ordeal, strength- 
tests, sex-emphasis; Kidd, Essent. Kafir, Lond., 1904, pp. 26-210), Kordofan 
(some tribes; infibulation, circumcision; 61. 1: 379; 87: 523), Loango 
(some tribes; circumcision, festivity; 61. II: 220-235), Mandingos of 
Sierra Leone (seclusion one month and one day, social and religious 
instruction, nakedness; 62: 292), Masai (physical; circumcision, seclusion, 
scarring with acid, instruction; Hollis, The Masai, Lond., 1905, pp. 261- 
299; Merker, Die Masai, Berlin, 1904, p. 60), Mendi (ceremonial, religious, 
etc.; "resurrection"; 61. II: 718), Nandi (physical and social, cir- 
cumcision, ceremonial; Hollis, The Nandi, Lond., 1909, pp. 57-82), Nubia 
(some tribes; circumcision and infibulation; 61. 11: 548), Old Calabar 
(circumcision; Ibid., pp. 220-235)', Peuhls (circumcision; Gray, in 22. Ill: 
667), Shelcani tribes of W. Africa (physical and social; fasting, swoon- 
ing, ordeals, initiation to Mwetyi society; Nassau, Fetishism in W. Africa, 
Lond., 1904, p. 249), Simali (some tribes; circumcision and infibulation; 
87: 523), SuTc (circumcision, dance; ceremonial and religious; Beech, 
The Suk, Oxford, 1911, pp. 20-24), Vai tribes of Liberia (limited seclusion; 
long period of instruction in arts, crafts, industries, esthetics, religion, 
sex, etc., in the "greegree bush"; 9. II: 308-314), Yaos (Bantu people; 
social, ceremonial, pedagogical; seclusion one month, sex-instruction; 94: 
126-127). 

2. Asia: Cambodians (rich girls secluded for years, taboos, hair-eutting ; 
Cabaton, in 22. Ill: 163), Cochin tribes and castes: Hindus (magic and 
religious; astrology; divination of girl's future from nature of menstrual 
blood-drops; 42. 1: 205-206), Jews ("White", "Black" and "Brown" 



38 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Jews; seven days' seclusion with ritual, etc.; gifts; marriage before and 
after puberty; 42. II: 408), Kadupattans (seclusion; ceremonial, demons 
feared; Ibid., p. 106), Kakkalans (palmists, vagrant mat -makers; seven 
to eleven days' seclusion, special food, exorcism; Ibid., pp. 381-382), Kam- 
malans (fifteen days' seclusion; ceremonial, 42. 1: 344-345), Nayars (high- 
class Sudras; Thirandukuli ceremony; 42. II: 22-29), Oddens (earth- 
workers; fifteen days' seclusion, for taboos, magic, etc., Ibid., p. 391), 
Otans (potters; fifteen days' seclusion, caste-feast; Ibid., p. 395), Tamils 
(Brahmans; seclusion, procession, religious festival; Ibid., p. 291); Kam- 
chatkans (circumcision; religious rites; Gray, in 22. Ill: 667), Koreans 
(capping ceremony, presentation to ancestors, re-naming; social, religious, 
pedagogic; 49: 525-531), Peguans (infibulation, sporadic circumcision; 87: 
548). 

3. Indonesia, Australasia, Polynesia: Australian peoples: Arunta 
(physical; mutilation, sex-emphasis, rite of Atna-Ariltha, etc.; 85: 92-94), 
Central tribes in general (physical; circumcision, Atna-Ariltha, mutilation, 
etc., report given to piercing or cutting the ovary; Ibid., p. 457, 458, 462, 
473; 62. 1: 178), Ilfirna (same rites as Arunta; 85: 92-94), Queensland 
tribes (physical and ceremonial; four stages of initiation, similar to 
Central tribes; Eoth, Ethnol. Stud., Lond., 1897), Tribes from Urabanna 
in south through the continent to western shores of Gulf of Carpentaria 
(physical; circumcision, seclusion, and, in some districts, intocision; Gray, 
in 19. Ill: 667); Malays of Alfurese Archipelago (circumcision; Ibid.), 
New Britain (girls of rich undergo "Tabu siga" caging ceremony, seclu- 
sion of from two to ten years; taboos of touching earth, seeing sun, etc.; 
16: 285), Yam and Tutu Is. of Torres Sts. (physical; pain, hardening, 
beating; seclusion; decoration; origin of menstruation attributed to 
embrace of moon; 75: 204-207). 

4. North America: Ahts (seclusion, fasts, taboos of sun and fire; 
Sproat, Scenes and Stud, of Sav. Life, Lond., 1866, p. 93), AlgonMan 
Prairie tribes (some; girls who are to become shammans are subjected 
to severe treatment; four series of "religious" dances; red spots painted 
on girl's face by father; Owen, in 19. 1: 323), Apache (nomadic tribe 
of Athapaskan stock in S. W. ; social, religious and dramatic; Jicari 11a 
ceremony represents race-origin; parts of culture-heroes played by boy 
and girl; 30: 166-171), Carriers of Athapaskan stock (seclusion, cere- 
monial impurity, gifts, etc.; Morice, Op. cit.), Dene or AthapasTcans (some 
tribes; seclusion of one to three years, fasting, taboos, magic; Morice, 
Op. cit.), Dieguenos (Mission Indians of California; social and religious; 
"roasting" ceremony; 68: 29), Eaida (physical; hardening; 88: 314), 
Lillooet (Salishan Indians of B. C. ; social, pedagogical, religious; long 
period of training and purification; 89: 262-267), Luisefio of Shoshonean 
stock (social, religious and esthetic; ceremonial; "roasting" ceremony; 
48: 31-32), Maidu of Foothill district (seclusion, limited; social and 
esthetic emphasis; 18: 235), Maidu of northeast district (social and 
esthetic; sex-emphasis, license given to participants in ceremonies; Ibid.), 
Mission tribes (some; social and religious; "roasting" ceremony; 68: 



van waters: adolescent girl 39 

28-32), Navaho of Athapaskan stock (may observe dramatic ceremony 
of Apache; girl is called "holy girl" and personifies Yolkaisdzan; Mat- 
thews, in Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1902, vol. 6, pp. 116-120), Oglala 
Dakota of Siouan stock (religious and social; festival of White Buffalo 
Skin; chief's food; 24: 583), Omaha of Siouan stock (religious and 
social; rite of Mozhizho, "Mark of Honor" ceremony in special cases; 
25: 129), Pawnee of Caddoan stock (feast, special honor paid to girl; 
23: 26), Potawatomi of Algonkian stock (religious, magic; hardening; 
dances, painting; especially severe for girls admitted as shamans; Owen, 
in 19. 1: 323), Salinan tribes of California (some; social, magical, cere- 
monial; Mason, in Univ. Calif. Publ. Amer. Arch, and Ethnol., 1912, vol. 
10, p. 161), Sauk of Algonkian stock (religious and magic, etc., if pre- 
paring to he shamans; Owen, in 19. 1: 323), Seri (most exalted social 
status given to girl at puberty of any people studied; 56: 11), Shasta 
(ceremonial, social, magic; extreme power, etc., attributed to dreams of 
girls; girl is put to death by fire, if she dreams of certain disasters; 17: 
455-461), Shoshone (northern tribes; sight of girl will cause death; 50: 
214, 239), Shuswap of Salishan stock (pedagogic, social, religious; length 
of training partly depends on desire of girl, — two to four years; 89: 587- 
592), South-West tribes in general (social, esthetic, religious, dramatic; 
30), Tahltan (seclusion six months to one year; scratch-stick; restric- 
tions, etc.; Emmons, Op. cit.), Takelma (puberty-dance most important 
festival; 71: 237), Thompson Indians of Salishan stock (pedagogical, etc., 
similar to Shuswap; rock-drawings; 6: 227-230), Tlingit (fast, restric- 
tions, especially if relative has recently died; Boas, Swanton), Tsetsaut of 
Athapaskan stock (seclusion for two years, taboos; magical, etc.; Boas), 
Vuntakutchin of Athapaskan stock (pedagogical, social; seclusion, after 
feast, in care of relative of betrothed, about a mile from home, for a 
year; puberty-feast as great social event; 38. II: 884), Wintun (puberty- 
dance as great social event; 64: 235-236), Yuchi (religious, social, cere- 
monial; belief in origin of race from menstrual blood; 83: 106-115), 
Zuni (girl may enter Kotikila fraternity, and in this case the whipping, 
etc., of initiation is as severe as for boys; 86: 93, 103, 294, 303), Eskimo 
peoples: Malemut of Bering Sts. (forty days seclusion, taboos; magic; 
social; 59: 291-292). 

5. South America: Banivas of Venezuela (Arawakan people; ceremonial, 
physical; heroic treatment, etc.; coincides with marriage-rite; Dalton, 
Venezuela, N. Y., 1912, pp. 119-134), Caribs (some tribes; hardening, 
mutilation; 61. II: 428), Chunco (circumcision; Gray, in 22. Ill: 667), 
Goajiros of Arawakan stock, seclusion for from two to five months; 61. 
11: 752), Guiana Indians (some tribes; seclusion in hammock for one 
month; girl's naked body exposed to bites of venomous ants; Labat, 
Voy. en Guin4e, Amsterdam, 1731, v. 4, p. 365), Icdna tribes of N. W. 
Brazil (some; hair cut short, body painted blue by mother; four weeks' 
seclusion and dieting; father sings daily at sunrise to girl, enumerating 
kinds of food tabooed and later permitted; feast; 46: 91-100), Onas of 
Tierra del Fuego (social; two years' training in endurance, and skill in 



40 



JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



industries; Furlong, inform 'n, 1913), Quechuas (circumcision; ceremonial, 
seclusion; milk; 61. II: 438), Uaupes tribes (some; seclusion, etc., simi- 
lar to Igana; formerly severe treatment, sometimes causing death, — beat- 
ing, etc., 46: 91), Ucayali tribes of N. E. Peru (some; circumcision; cere- 
monial; Gray, in 22. Ill: 667), Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego (pedagogical, 
etc.; long period of training in industry, etc.; Furlong, inform 'n, 1913). 

V. Some Constituent Elements of "Puberty "-Ceremonies 

In the table following have been listed some 300 or more 
items figuring in "puberty "-ceremonies from all over the globe. 
Items common to both adolescent boys and girls are marked a; 
those common to other social groups, warriors, priests, mourners, 
pregnant women, husbands of secluded women, fathers, etc., 
are marked b. 



A. Table of Elements 

6 Agriculture (ceremonial per- 
formance of sowing, hoeing, 
reaping, etc.; dances and songs 
related to agriculture) 

a&Animals (wearing of claws, 
hoofs, horns, teeth, tails, skins, 
etc.) 

a&Anointing (with cocoanut-milk, 
fat, beer, honey, milk, animal 
and vegetable oil, wine, "medi- 
cine") 
6 Astrology (prediction of girl's 
career from time and manner 
of first appearance of puberty, 
etc.) 
aBag (large knit bag given as 
badge of maturity and ability 
to work, carry burdens, etc.) 

afcBathing 

o&Beating (with clubs, rods, etc., 
occasionally causing death ; 
sticks, stinging plants, thorns, 
thongs, etc.) 

atBinding (with cords, strings, 
fibers, sinews, cobwebs, etc.) 
aBlindfolding 
Blood (divination of future 
career of girl from form, size, 
and color of first menstrual 
blood) 

aiBlood-drickirig 



of "Puberty" -Ceremonies 
a&Blood-letting 
fcBlood-sprinkling (blood of 
fowl sprinkled on charms, gifts, 
religious offerings, etc.) 
a&Blood (as possessing magical or 

polluting qualities) 
a&Blood (prohibition of girl see- 
ing blood during rite or seclu- 
sion) 
a&Branding 
^Breaking of dish or pot 
Bride (girl considered as, be- 
cause of first menstruation) 
6Buffalo-robe (ceremonial seat- 
ing or stepping on) 
aBurying (in earth, sand, etc.) 
Burying (first menstrual blood 
buried in ground, — analogous to 
customs of child-birth) 
fcCandles (lighted to drive off 
demons; as offerings to gods) 
db Cannibalism 

oCapping 
a&Charms and amulets 
feChild (young child carried in 
procession) 
a&Children (prohibition of se- 
cluded girl having children of 
either sex near her, or of seeing 
them) 



van waters: adolescent girl 



41 



a&Cicatrization 

ab Circumcision 
ft Citizenship (admission to full 
rights of) 

a&Clay (as head or body cover- 
ing) 

GClay (must be mixed with all 
water drunk by girl) 

abClothes (burned, changed; pro- 
vision of new clothes; washing, 
etc.) 
fcClouds (symbol worn, — cotton, 
feathers, fluff, etc.) 

a&Club-house (entrance into) 

afeConsecration 

a&Cooking (performed as cere- 
monial operation, or specially 
for pubescent girls; secluded 
or separated from general cook- 
ing) 

ofeCords (as charms or decora- 
tions; as "medicine"; as sign 
of maturity) 
£> Crowning 

o&Cutting (cutting body and face; 
gashing with knives, shells, 
stones, teeth, etc.) 

ofcDancing (in groups; instruction 
in dancing; masks worn; sexes 
apart; sexes together; solo 
dances by girl; sex-instruction 
by means of dance) 

ofcDeath (accidental; putting girl 
to death because of dreams; ill- 
ness of chief; misfortune, sac- 
rifice, vow-fulfilment) 

a&Decoration (of body, clothes, 
face, house, implements, etc., in 
greatest variety) 

abDecoration (use of animal- 
skins, etc.; beads, shells, etc.; 
cutting; feathers; filing; floor 
fringes ; painting ; piercing ; 
use of plant-juices for burning 
permanent marks on body and 
face; staining, tattooing, etc.) 

o&Demons (driven out by blowing 
drums, exhortation, exorcism, 



fanning, flute, juggling, magic, 
nailing, offerings, prayers, puri- 
fication, waving, etc.) 

a&D epilation 

Disgrace (incurred by failure to 
marry or to undergo sex-initia- 
tion before puberty) 

a&Dishes (broken, ceremonially 
washed, provision of new set, 
special set used, thrown away, 
etc.) 

a&Dramatic art (death and resur- 
rection presented; folk-lore pre- 
sented; origin-legend; pageants 
and processions) 

a&Drawing (rock and sand draw- 
ings, and paintings of dreams, 
manitous, offerings, rites, vis- 
ions, etc.) 

Dreams (all of girl's dreams 
regarded as coming true; 
dreams guarded against, re- 
corded, prohibited, punished, 
etc.) 

a&Dress changed (mode of, tem- 
porarily, permanently) 
Dressing (child dressed as girl 
in puberty-ceremony) 
aDressing (those in puberty- 
ceremony dressed in garments 
of opposite sex, warriors, etc.; 
bells, ornaments, robes, imple- 
ments, weapons, etc.) 

a&Drinking-reed 

a&Ear cutting, decoration, etc. 
(lobes cut, bored, dilated, dis- 
tended; plugs, cylinders, rings, 
etc., inserted, — of all sorts of 
material; pierced, slit, etc.) 
ftEast (girl must sit facing E. 
during seclusion ; ornaments, 
head-dress, etc., when removed, 
thrown toward E.) 

abExhortations (to chastity, cour- 
age, generosity, industry, virtue, 
etc.) 

Expulsion (of girl by women of 
tribe from settlement, if she 



42 



JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



winces or shows cowardice dur- 
ing ordeals, etc.) 

a&Face (anointed, blackened, cut, 
decorated, hidden, painted, etc.) 

a&Fasting (limited; for long 
periods) 
^Fattening 

obFeasting 

a&Feathers (body covered with 
fat, oil, etc., and feathers ap- 
plied as decorations, symbols; 
stepping in feathers, etc.) 
Feet (covered with mocassins; 
taboo of touching ground) 

afeFire (signal-fires lighted by girl 
and mother to announce pu- 
berty; special fire for girl in 
seclusion, lighted by mother, 
clan brothers, sisters, etc.; 
standing in burning circle; fire- 
or'deals) 

Firewood (ceremonial gathering 
of by girl for use in evening 
dance, festivities, etc.; small 
quantity gathered by her for 
every house in village; use in 
tests of strength) 

afcFood (special articles provided; 
best food, "chief's food"; 
sweet-meats; removal of child- 
food taboo) 

a&Food (filth-eating) 

a&Food-prohibitions (all specially- 
liked articles; all usual articles, 
or those observed to have dis- 
agreed with girl during child- 
hood; fruit, meat and fish; 
joints only, eaten when large 
animals are served; quantity 
limited; time of eating regu- 
lated) 

6Food-song (all different food- 
products gathered and prepared 
by women enumerated in pu- 
berty-ceremony ; father sings 
daily at sunrise to secluded girl, 



enumerating kinds of food ta- 
booed and afterward permitted) 

obFood-taboo (animal food; birds, 
girls permitted only the young 
nestlings, etc.; certain parts ta- 
booed, — feet, head, uterus, etc.; 
eggs, fish, meat, salt, etc., milk) 
JFood-taboo (touching or eating 
the common staple food; hunt- 
ing or touching the first animal 
of season, first salmon, bear, 
deer, turtle, etc.; first vegeta- 
bles, etc.) 

a&Gambling 

a&Gift-giving (to candidates for 
initiation; to guests; to poor 
and aged; to spectators; to 
tutors and attendants of girl 
during seclusion; special em- 
blems given as sign of maturity, 
etc.) 
bGift-giving to those of opposite 
sex (girls present boys with 
beads, clothes, foods, ornaments, 
etc.) 

Girl not yet arrived at puberty 
(as aid, caretaker, and partici- 
pant in ceremonies of girl un- 
dergoing the rite) 
Girls of same age, or older (as 
companions, guardians, etc.; are 
put through same rites as pu- 
bescent girl) 

afrGods (acquisition of special 
deity to care for unmarried girls 
at puberty; brought from bush 
at puberty; returned, when mar- 
ried; prayer, sacrifice to) 

a&Grass (as decoration, magic, 
symbol of fertility, etc.; sweet- 
grass burned as purification) 

a&Guardian spirits (acquisition 
of) 
bGuest-privilege (guests may ask 
for anything parents own, and 
they must give it during pu- 
berty-ceremony) 



van waters: adolescent girl 



43 



ofcHair (burning, coloring, cut- 
ting, distribution of, among 
guests; new arrangement of; 
permitting to grow long; shav- 
ing, etc.) 
a&Head (concealed; conceived as 
sacred, covered during seclusion, 
etc.) 

fcHead-biting 
a&Head-taboo (taboo of touching 
head with hand) 

fcHoliday given (from few days 
up to three months) 

fcHouse (erection of separate 
house for girl, without seclu- 
sion) 
a&House (seclusion in special) 
House-symbol (roof, or skeleton- 
model of house put over heads 
of group of girls, who have to 
carry it about) 

frlnfibulation 

~b Initiated girl (as companion of 
and guardian of girl, undergo- 
ing ceremony) 
ofelnitiation (into fraternities, 
sacred orders, secret societies, 
etc. 

^Instruction (in esthetics, arts 
and crafts, domestic duties, hy- 
giene, religion, social relations, 
tribal customs, etc.) 

construction in sex 
a&Intoxicants (prohibited; used 
for first time) 
Introcision 

oJoking 

6 Juggling (amusement provided 
for guests at puberty-ceremony; 
magical act, performed by wo- 
ban expert) 
aft Kneeling 

a&Knots (as decorations; as mag- 
ical, or symbolic) 
a&Labrets 

aLanguage (proficiency required 
in use of special language, etc.) 



oLeaf -gathering 
Leaf-marriage (girl dressed in 
leaf-garment, ceremonially con- 
ceived as married) 
Leaving home (girl sets out for 
mountains or bush, and is over- 
taken by mother or relatives; 
seclusion away from home) 
License (given to all who dance 
or take part in puberty-cere- 
monies for various sorts of in- 
dulgence) 
aLies (prohibited; belief that 
acquisition of habit will persist 
throughout maturity) 

a&Lips (boring; extension; slit- 
ting, etc., insertion of objects 
in, etc.) 

afeLustration 

a&Marriage 

a&Masks (worn during seclusion) 

a&Milk (poured on body, head, 
etc., as wound-dressing) 
Moon, taboo of seeing during 
seclusion) 

Moon (tattooed as femine ele- 
ment in nature) 

Mother (as chief in ceremony; 
as guardian, caretaker, etc.) 
oMother (prohibited from seeing 
child about to be initiated or 
secluded) 

a&Mud (covering with) 

a&Mutilation (of body, face, 

members; joints of little finger 

tied with cobwebs, and eaten 

off by ants) 

6 Nail (demons driven into tree 

by) 

a&Nakedness 

a&Naming 

a&Narcotics, anesthetics, etc. (to- 
bacco, chewed, eaten, prohibited, 
smoked; used as ordeal; used 
as purge, emetic, etc.) 

a&Nasal septum (bored, distended, 
cut, pierced) 



44 



JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



a&Ordeals (fire, thorns, etc.) 

abPainting; temporary, perma- 
nent; entire body, strips, face, 
etc.; use of flour, red earth, 
soot, white clay, pigments of 
all sorts) 

Painting of special designs 
(four direction from corners of 
mouth; red disk, as sun-em- 
blem, on crown of head) 
oPassing out different door 
aPaying attendants 

afcPerfume 

Piercing of hymen 

afcPrayers 
aPresentation to ancestors 

a&Procession (to certain lake, 
mountain, river, sacred stone, 
etc.) 
& Prohibition (of seeing adults; of 
anointing; bathing, etc., ab ; of 
calling anyone by name, ab ; of 
gluttony; of entering a field or 
kraal; of excitement and haste; 
of laughter, ab; of sleep, ab) 
^Prostitution 

abPurging 

06P urification (cedar-bark, 
needles, wood, etc., burned! 
cow-dung, etc., dissolved in 
water; leaf and wood smoke; 
plants, sweet-grass, etc., burned; 
washing in water, etc.) 
aEaces (foot-racing by girl and 
guests; horse-racing, races in 
water) 

a&Battles (of deer-hoof, etc.; 
gourds, etc.) 
oEelatives (girl not allowed to 

see) 
fcEepetition (same ceremony re- 
peated at second menstruation) 
aEeviling (attendants and tutors 
revile the neophytes, who are 
expected to make fitting return) 

a&Eiddles (carved on sticks dur- 
ing seclusion; guessing-contests) 



Eight (of girl to exclude her 
enemies from ceremonies and 
ordeals) 

Eights (of attendant of girl in 
seclusion to enter any house be- 
fore sunrise, and take anything 
without pay) 
aEing (worn as sign of puberty) 
Eiver (ceremonial bathing, 
washing, ab ; floating object 
down, as offerings, or charms 
to keep off demons, b) 
fcEoasting 

ab Sacrifices offered in behalf of 
girl 

a&Sand (burying in; painting; 
winnowing) 

ab Scarification 

a&Scratch-stick 
aSea (ceremonial bathing, etc.; 
seclusion by; taboo, girl must 
not walk near high-water mark, 
and never below it) 

a&Seclusion (from a few hours to 
ten years or more) 

afcSeclusion (continuous during 
period of initiation or purifica- 
tion) 

ab Seclusion (with periods of in- 
termission for dancing, feast, 
etc.) 

ab Seclusion (in bush, pit, one 
part of general family house; in 
separate house; at seashore, 
etc.) 

Sex, other (girls may beat boys 
of same age with thorns) 
Sex, other (permanent assump- 
tion of role of other sex in case 
of psychic or social inversion) 
6Sex, other (if a youth is en- 
feebled or ill, pubescent girl 
may paint or tattoo lines on his 
wrists or arms, even while she 
is ceremonially unclean) 
oSexual intercourse 
Sieve (pouring water through 



van waters: adolescent girl 



45 



for first bath during menstrua- 
tion) 

ab Silence enforced 

Song (erotic, composed by girls) 

a&Songs (esthetic; domestic du- 
ties; arts and crafts, food-songs 
by mother, by father; initia- 
tion; magical; physical, to pro- 
mote growth of breasts, etc.) 
aSongs as sex-instruction 

ab Sprinkling (with feathers, flour 
meal, hoddentin, water, etc.) 
feStar (prohibition of seeing) 
Star (girl must bathe, and come' 
out of seclusion when morning- 
star rises) 

Star (symbol tattooed on girl 
as the four life-giving winds) 
Star (symbol tattooed as night, 
or emblem of mother-force in 
nature) 

ab Steaming 
aStinging (with ants, juices of 
poisonous plants and shrubs; 
producing temporary, or perma- 
nent marks) 

Stones (carrying or wearing 
heated stones in belt) 
Stones (carrying heavy, as test 
of strength during seclusion) 
aStones (sleeping on) 

a&Suicide (in case of first-born, 
etc.; sacrifice; as fulfilment of 
vow of parents) 

&Sun (gazing at till swoon is 
produced) 

ab Sun (prohibition of seeing) 
Sun (tattooed as mark of honor 
on girl's forehead) 

ab Sweat-bath 

ab Sweat-lodge (confinement in) 
aSwimming (ending of ceremony; 

swimming-song) 
aSwinging (in hammock as part 
of seclusion) 

Swinging (performed by adoles- 
cent girl as magical rite for fer- 
tility of crops and race) 



b Taboo (of approaching "medi- 
cine", the sick; of touching or 
seeing a large animal, bear, 
deer, etc.; sex-taboo, ab; blood, 
food, drink, head, moon, star, 
sun, water, etc.) 
a&Tattooing (from few dots or 
lines to patterns over whole 
body) 

aThreads (of cotton, silk, sinew, 
etc., tied about ankles and 
wrists; as decorations; as mag- 
ical; as hygienic measure) 
Tide (girl must bathe, after se- 
clusion, when tide is running 
out; must not below high-water 
mark) 
a&Tooth (filing, knocking; black- 
ening, coloring, lacquering; re- 
moval, etc.) 

aTotem (at first menstruation 
girl ties some symbol of her 
totem to her loins, to warn men 
of her condition) 

bTotemism (both sexes instructed 
in at puberty; designs painted 
or tattooed on body, etc.) 
Tree (bark, leaves, needles, etc., 
worn as decoration or sign of 
puberty, a; bark, boat floated 
down river, bearing lighted can- 
dles, offerings, etc., to drive off 
evil spirits, b) 

bTree (procession to sacred) 
Tree-climbing (to give strength 
to girl and offspring) 
Turtle (tattooed on girl to rep- 
resent water and wind) 
Turtle (prohibited during pair- 
ing season to menstruating 
girl) 

6 Veils worn 

aVermin (stinging with, as or- 
deal, test, punishment, etc.) 

aVermin (adolescents collect, and 
set adrift in small boat, to 
avoid being afflicted by them in 
mature life) 



46 



JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



a&Vigils (long periods of sit- 
ting, standing, sleeplessness, 
etc., to avoid laziness) 

a&Vomiting 

a&Votive offerings 
aVow-fulfdments (if made by 
parents for child before or soon 
after birth) 

a&War-dance (girl, with girl com- 
panions, dance before entire 
tribe, at end of ceremony) 
oWarriors (girl wears clothes, 
decorations, weapons, etc., of) 

a& Washing (ceremonial perform- 
ance of; all who are with girl 
must wash before speaking to 
outside persons or men) 

db Water (prohibition of drinking; 
must be cold, warmed, mixed 
with clay) 



6 Whistling (whistling into girl's 
mouth) 

db Wine-drinking (allowed for first 
time at puberty; prohibition of; 
ceremonial use of) 
Women (as chief in ceremony; 
as prohibited from seeing se- 
cluded girl, penalty death from 
sickness) 

Wood (heavy pieces carried by 
girl, and placed in rocks, trees, 
etc.; strength-test) 

a&Work (abstained from for peri- 
ods of from one day to several 
years; begun for first time at 
puberty) 

Work( special hard work done 
by girl on day of first menstru- 
ation, to avoid dysmenorrhoea, 
and also laziness in future life) 



van waters: adolescent girl 47 

B. Significance of Factors Listed in " Puberty "-Ceremonies 

In the "puberty "-ceremonies studied, there are 311 main 
items listed as occurring with sufficient frequency, or prom- 
inence, to be considered important. Very few are isolated; the 
majority occur in combination with other factors, and are 
grouped in various ways. Of these 311 items, 237 are common 
to adolescent ceremonies for both sexes; 42 are, apparently, 
distinct modes of treatment for the adolescent girl; the 
remainder, as well as most of those common to both sexes, are 
found in frequent use among other social classes, and in cere- 
monies of initiation generally. 

Of the 42 (13% of the whole number), chiefly distinctive of 
customs relating to girls, 11% are mainly physical in character, 
and these bear close resemblance to analogous customs for boys, 
as, for example, the practice of introcision, performed on 
pubescent girls, is the physical counterpart of the subincision 
rite for boys (85) ; 11% are esthetic in function, bearing no 
relation to puberty, and only incidental references to sex; 28% 
have pedagogic relations; religious and social elements receive 
the chief emphasis in 70%. In each phase there is overlapping, 
due to the fact that a single custum may possess several native 
interpretations. 

In dealing with the significance of these factors, it is clear 
that no generalizations can be made. No statistical value obtains 
in a numerical statement of the way in which they group them- 
selves under certain headings; yet such treatment has a sug- 
gestive value. Of the 311 cases, 76, or about 24%, are mainly 
esthetic; 31% have pedagogical significance; in 39% the physical 
element is predominant; 220 or 70% of all, are social and 
religious in character. 

Complexity of function is the most marked indication of the 
entire group. Overlapping is especially prominent in physical 
and social and religious aspects. On the other hand, items 
which appear wholly esthetic are frequently given social explana- 
tions. Thus, the use of feathers serves both as decoration and as 
a religious rite among the Zufiis. (86.) So, the practice of 
circumcision may be explained simply as the physical prepara- 
tion for marriage; or it may be the badge of social maturity, 
or serve as the initiation to a religious group. Again, its 
explanation may be pedagogic, as to teach the girl not to be 



48 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

lazy, or to enable her to carry heavy burdens without fatigue. 
The explanation may be hygienic, as preventive of disease, or 
inconvenient desires. Or, purely esthetic reasons may predom- 
inate, such as making the individual more attractive to the 
opposite sex. All these reasons, in great variety, are current 
among the people studied. Tattooing is another conspicuous 
example of a practice to be listed in all four groups. So, too, 
mutilations of many kinds, anointing, dancing, singing, purifica- 
tion, hair-arrangement, use of various materials for decoration, 
etc., all these show esthetic, physical, pedagogic, and social and 
religious aspects. 

The esthetic group contains those items which are, perhaps, 
most rarely found in isolation. The esthetic phase may represent 
both the beginning and the decay of a custom. For instance, 
the elaborate tattooing of the Fiji girl is described as being 
purely decorative at first, and has now become an important 
badge of social position, the absence of which would prevent 
marriage. (Thompson, B., The Fijians, Lond., 1908, pp. 
217-219.) Again, the Korean ceremony of capping was formerly 
a serious religious and pedagogic rite, and now it shows a 
tendency to become merely an esthetic change of dress for 
adolescents of both sexes. This view harmonizes with the theory 
of the development of art set forth by Grosse and adopted by 
Reinach and others, namely, that "art for the sake of art" is 
never primitive, but a derived and conventionalized form of the 
original esthetic impulse. Primitive art is always a social and 
religious phenomenon, and performs a social and religious 
function. (Grosse, E., Die An f tinge d. Kunst, Leipzig, 1894, 
pp. 176-177; Reinach, S., Cults, Myths and Religions, London, 
1912, pp. 124-137.) 

In like manner, songs and dances that may be understood as 
having originally been esthetic appendages to a social festivity 
in honor of coming of age of youth, have become the means 
of sex-instruction or of initiation into both physical and religious 
mysteries. The pedagogical value of these songs and dances 
has often been overlooked, observers describing them as 
"obscene." Havelock Ellis (20: 87-88, 493) was among the first 
to see their real significance. 

The pedagogical element is emphasized in various ways, from 
the casual beating at puberty, or the mere harangue given in the 



van waters: adolescent girl 49 

course of the ceremony, to the direct training given for months 
in the "Greegree Bush" of the VaL A conspicuous example of 
deliberate pedagogy is the fast (from a couple of years to five 
or more), involving abstinence from all food especially liked, or 
rare foods, obligatory upon girls and boys of the Andaman 
islands. This fast is explained as a preparation for the self- 
denial necessary in bringing-up a family. Abstinence is especi- 
ally prolonged in case of girls, so that they may become careful 
for their children. 

Again, the pedagogical value may be hidden in dramatic 
presentation of folk-lore, as in the Athapaskan and Zuni 
customs. Or, it may come incidentally through the potency of 
imitation of acts performed by adults ; so the old women of the 
Luiseho, Diegueno and other Mission Indians distribute coins 
to the guests, and clothes to the poor and aged, in order that the 
girls may become generous. 

Though the physical customs of "puberty "-ceremonies are 
very numerous and involved, ranging from the new arrangement 
of hair of the Hopi Indians to the elaborate mutilations of the 
Australian Blacks, it must be noted that a large part are simply 
hygienic in character, — such, for example, as wearing heated 
stones, or being buried in heated sand, etc. Such origin may 
be attributed possibly to the customs of "roasting" and steam- 
ing the pubescent girl. Seclusion, itself, thus arises naturally 
from the inclination for rest, and from the inconvenience in 
primitive culture of providing proper clothing during the period 
of menstruation. 

Social and religious values, to a large extent, dominate all 
" puberty "-customs. A typical instance occurs in the intricate 
ceremony of the Yaos (Central African Bantus), where, after 
many elaborate rites and physical mutilations, etc., the chief 
purpose of the proceedings is seen in the carrying about by the 
group of initiated girls of the roof or skeleton model of a house, 
with the explanation that they thus become accustomed to the 
position of the "pillars of the home." (94:127.) Sometimes 
the real ■ significance of adolescent ceremonial has been 
adequately set forth by the peoples themselves among whom it 
occurs. 



VI. Native Explanations of Puberty-Customs 

It is a singular fact that of all the theories of the significance 
of puberty-ceremonies, such as those of Frobenius, Frazer, 
Crawley, Sckurtz, Webster, etc., none is based mainly on the 
explanations of primitive peoples themselves, the assumption 
being, apparently, that of the Freudian theory of conscious- 
ness ; i. e., these statements do not say what they mean, and 
the true reason must be sought elsewhere. Difficulties in the 
method of using native explanations are enormous; in many 
cases, they have not been recorded, or have been "interpreted" 
by the recorder. In spite of this, however, it would seem that 
here, as in the fields of totemism and myth, nothing can be 
gained until foundations are laid in the facts of primitive 
life. If then we fail, by this method, to reduce puberty-cus- 
toms to the dimensions of a theory, we may at least obtain 
insight into the healthy diversity of the problem. 

Westermarck (95:170), noting that the explanation often 
given for savage decoration is a religious one, remarks : ' ' But 
such tales are not of much importance, as any usage practiced 
from time immemorial may easily be ascribed to the command 
of a god." Arbitrary religious sanction, however, may well 
serve to indicate the secondary and fortuitous nature of the 
custom. Wundt (in his Ethik), on the contrary, holds that 
the religious idea is the true source of the custom. This is 
the view of Tylor, later adopted by Frazer and Crawley. The 
present use of native explanations of puberty-customs, how- 
ever, is not concerned with the problem of the origin and de- 
velopment of these customs, but with their meaning to the 
people who use them. The aim is to discover the content, not 
the interpretation. 

In a recent article on "The Sociological Significance of 
Myth" (Folklore, 1912, XXIII, pp. 307-331), Rivers points 
out that the service of myths in providing clear evidence of 
social conditions has been largely overlooked (p. 328). It is 



van waters: adolescent girl 51 

upon this function of native explanation that the present 
method relies. 

In the material studied, native explanations have been fur- 
nished in 219 instances. To attempt to group these reasons 
into certain categories is to enter a maze of conflicting motives 
as varied as life itself. Yet it will be apparent that typical 
ideas emerge, exhibiting features which are mainly physical, 
esthetic, pedagogical, religious or social; we cannot gain com- 
plete disposal, however, of each individual explanation by 
grouping it under one of these heads. For instance, the cus- 
tom found among the Shuswap Indians of setting lice adrift 
at puberty is given a purely physical reason, i. e., that the 
adolescents may be free from vermin in the future. But it is 
performed also for a magico-religious reason, founded on ex- 
press belief that everything done at this period has a prede- 
termining effect upon the after-life of the individual (89:587). 
In order to show the complexity of the problem, it may be 
well to treat separately two very common and widespread modes 
of treatment, — tattooing and circumcision. 

A. Tattooing 

To a greater or less extent tattooing is performed on the 
adolescent girl in Asia, Oceania, and North and South America ; 
not at all in Australia, and rarely in Africa. None of the 
puberty-rites studied show evidences of simple tattooing of the 
girl in Africa. As to Australia, Westermarck (85 :177) says that 
either or both sexes are tattooed at puberty. Waltz (Anthrop. 
d. Naturv., Lpzg., 1872, Vol. VI, p. 739, p. 785, p. 787) men- 
tions tattooing and scarification at puberty among the Aus- 
tralians without distinguishing them. Spencer and Gillen 
(85:42) note the prevalence of cicatrices, first made at puberty. 

The physical extent of tattooing includes every part of the 
body, — "no visible part of the human body, except the eye- 
ball, has escaped this practice." (95:169.) 

Miss Fletcher states that, in general, tattooing for men in 
North America, "marked personal achievement, some special 
office, symbolized a vision from the supernatural powers, or 
served some practical purpose," as measuring, tallying and the 
like; while among women "the tattooing was more social in its 
significance." (38.11:700.) 



52 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

With few exceptions, this is true elsewhere. Tattooing a line 
from the edge of the lower lip to the point of the chin, among 
the Eskimo, announced that the girl had arrived at puberty. 
Three lines (or more) indicated marriage. This was, perhaps, 
the most general form and meaning of tattooing applied to 
girls, throughout the American continent, as pointed out by 
Swanton. 

Among the Nagas of Upper Assam matrimony was not per- 
mitted to the untattooed girls (Dalton, Descript. Ethnol. Ben- 
gal, Calcutta, 1872, p. 39). Tattooing is necessary before mar- 
riage among some of the pagan races of the Malay Peninsula, 
and in many parts of Oceania (76:493-494, 741, 264-2; Hose, 
Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Lond., 1912, Vol. I, pp. 166-171). 

Similarly, the Makalaka girls, of South Africa, undergo the 
severe ordeal of having about four thousand stitches made in 
the skin of the chest and stomach, and a black fluid rubbed into 
the wounds. This occurs at puberty, and is necessary for mar- 
riage (Mauch, cited by Westermarck, 95:178). The Baffin's 
Bay Eskimo say that they tattoo girls in order to distinguish 
the sexes, since both dress in similar fashion (2:481). The Hud- 
son Bay Eskimo give a highly suggestive social reason. At pu- 
berty girls are tattooed by old women, who insist on doing this in 
order to make the girls "loo~k old" (2:481). Here we have a 
custom imposed by a social class, whose interests are remotest 
from adolescence. This artificial or fortuitous stimulus to 
pubertal custom is found in numerous instances, and is often 
recognized in the primitive explanation. 

Tattooing as class mark, or sign of distinction, is frequent. 
The Omaha and some of their cognates place a round mark on 
the girl 's forehead to indicate the achievements of her father, 
though she herself must fulfil conditions of chastity, strength 
and industry before he can receive the honor which accom- 
panies this ceremony. The design is called "The Mark of 
Honor," and insures to the girl fertility, and a fortunate mar- 
riage. (25:219.) 

This custom may be compared to scarring the chest of a 
girl when her brother spears his first dugong, as is done in 
New Guinea. ( 34 :208 et seq. ) We may compare also tattooing 
the mouth of the Eskimo wife whose husband is a great whaler 
(Fletcher, in 38.11:700). 

The Takelma tattoo girls at puberty as a sex mark, "to 



van waters: adolescent girl 53 

prevent them being derided as boys" (71:273). Among the 
Ahoms (Shans of the Tai branch), tattooing is a mark of 
social distinction granted only to members of the priestly clan 
(Gurdon, P. R., in 22.1:235). While among the Tangkhuls 
of Manipur tattooing is a tribal identification, as well as means 
of protection; all women who bear this sign are unmolested 
when abroad, since other peoples respect Tangkhul vengeance 
(Hodson, T. C, The Naga Tribes of Manipur. London, 1911. 
p. 31). So with the Haida tribes of Queen Charlotte Islands, 
designs which have reached the highest esthetic quality of tat- 
tooing in North America, north of Mexico, are imprinted upon 
both men and women as tribal marks of distinction (Fletcher, 
in 38.11:700). 

Esthetic and purely physical reasons are rare for this prac- 
tice. The Melanesians of British New Guinea and the Massim 
tattoo solely as a means of personal adornment, and give no 
other explanation. (76:489, 492.) 

Among the Naga Tribes of Manipur tattooing is said to have 
originated at the suggestion of a foreign monarch who pitied 
the poverty-stricken Naga who had no ornaments. (Hodson, 
p. 30.) Here should be mentioned the interesting fact that 
tattooing designs of the middle Atlantic coast peoples and 
those of many of the Western tribes of North America repre- 
sented pottery and basket designs, showing their relation to 
woman's art and industry. (Fletcher, in 38.11:700; compare 
Wissler, "Dec. Art of the Sioux Indians," in Bull. Amer. Mus. 
Nat. Hist., N. Y., Vol. XVIII, 1904, pp. 231-278.) Wester- 
marck, in his chapter, "Means of Attraction," gives other ex- 
amples which may have purely esthetic interpretation. (95: 
179 et seq.) See also tattooing and noseboring of the Melane- 
sians (Massim), "to attract the opposite sex." (76:492.) 

The chief physical explanations given are: for the sake of 
fertility (Omaha) ; for the cure of toothache (Chippewa, many 
heliefs were attached to the way in which the patient endured 
the pain). The therapeutic value of tattooing performed by a 
pubescent girl upon a delicate youth has already been men- 
tioned; for the purpose of stimulating sex-passion in the girl 
preparatory to marriage (Thompson, B., Fiji, London, 1908, 
p. 219). 

The relation of tattooing to sex-passion has been noted in 
Samoa by Turner (Samoa, London, 1884, p. 90). In Tahiti 



54 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

this connection is also indicated, and given a religious explana- 
tion. The daughter of Taaroa and Apouvaru, their chief deities, 
was secluded at puberty, in order to preserve her chastity. 
"Intent on her seduction, the brothers invented tattooing, and 
marked each other with the figure called Taoniaro. Thus or- 
namented, they appeared before their sister, who admired the 
figures, and in order to be tattooed herself . . . broke the 
enclosure that had been erected for her preservation, was tat- 
tooed, and became also the victim to the designs of her 
brothers." These two sons became the gods of tattooing, and 
men imitated their example. It is significant, however, that 
the chiefs of Tahiti later prohibited it altogether. (Ellis, 
Polynesian Researches, Vol. 1:262, 266.) 

Joest attributes tattooing to desire to attract and stimulate 
the opposite sex. (Tdtowiren, Narbenzeichnen und Korperbe- 
malen. Berlin, 1887, p. 56; compare 95:131.) 

Other religious reasons for tattooing are in the main bound 
up with the welfare of the girl in the future world. "With the 
Greenland Eskimo and those of the Aleutian Islands, if the 
operation is omitted girls in the future world will be turned 
into tubs, and placed under lamps in heaven (12). Among 
the Fijians, tattooing was appointed by the god Dengei, and 
its neglect punished by indignities in the other world. (Thomp- 
son, Op. cit., p. 218.) With the Cochin Oddens, girls were 
tattooed as proof of their life on earth when they should die. 
(42.11.391.) Similarly the Chamars tattoo their girls, so as to 
"secure identification in the next world." (Lillingston, in 
22.111:354.) The highest religious feeling, as exhibited by 
tattooing the pubescent girl, is shown by the Omaha and some 
of their cognates. Here the four-pointed star on back and 
breast signified life-processes and spiritual forces in nature. 
Male and female, light and dark, sun, moon, water, earth, sky, 
and the four life-giving winds were all expressed in this out- 
ward symbol of the union of the girl with the cosmos (25:494). 

B. Circumcision 

In dealing with native reasons for circumcision of girls all 
analogous operations on the sexual organs, such as infibulation r 
introcision, piercing or cutting the hymen or ovary, gashes, 
mutilations, etc., will be included. These practices on girls are 



van waters: adolescent girl 55 

found frequently in Africa and Australia, somewhat in Oceania 
and South America, rarely in North America, and occasionally 
in Asia. 

Although it will be impossible to pass in review the numerous 
theories of the origin and significance of circumcision, those 
of Westermarck and Spencer may fittingly be compared with 
theories offered by primitive peoples. Westermarck holds, as 
we have seen, that circumcision and all mutilations of .the body 
arose as means of sex-attraction, through the need of variety, 
stimulus, decoration, etc. Later religious interpretation was 
given, or the custom became mechanical. (95:201-206.) Ac- 
cording to Spencer, circumcision is a sacrificial offering to the 
gods. ^Descript. Sociol., Vol. II, p. 67..) This theory with cer- 
tain modifications is widely held. (Frazer, Crawley, etc.) 

Later, as in the case of the Jews, the custom is sometimes 
held to have developed social and legal features, becoming a 
mark of identification with a privileged class. According to 
this view circumcision is extended to women in the course of 
struggle for higher social status, and equality with men; it is 
then for women, a sort of by-product of freedom. 

Primitive peoples express to a certain extent these types of 
explanation, but with a wider range, and as will be seen, a 
closer reference to the human aspect. 

A common physical explanation of the circumcision of girls 
is to secure or promote chastity, though here it must be recog- 
nized that social, hygienic and religious factors may be in- 
volved. (Bamangwato, and peoples of Galla lands, Kordofan, 
Nubia, and Somali, in Africa; the Asiatic Kamchadals; and 
some of the tribes of South America.) 

In the Somali lands, among the Asiatic Pegu, and in some 
other parts of Africa, as well as with certain peoples in Arabia 
and Egypt, infibulation occurs, sometimes together with cir- 
cumcision, though not always performed at puberty, and is 
given a similar explanation. (87:548; Gray, in 22.111:667-669; 
Littmann, in ibid., 1:58; 61.1:379.) 

Other physical explanations are: to check sexual desire be- 
fore marriage, natives of the Alfurese Archipelago, and the 
Mandingo of West Africa (Gray, in 22.111:667) to avert 
hysteria (Peuhls and some cognates, Gray, P. H., loc. cit; 
61.11:220-235), to promote fertility (Masai, Bambuk, na- 
tives of Old Calabar), while some of the Australians are said 



56 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

by Ploss to pierce the ovary to prevent fertility. (61.11:235, 
citing MacGillivray. ) ■ 

In one of the Masai native texts we read, ' ' When Masai girls 
wish to marry they are circumcised." (Hollis, The Masai. Ox- 
ford, 1905, p. 299.) Although in the ceremony itself there is 
much to indicate that the rite has a ceremonial and civil pur- 
pose as well, the chief reason here given, points to the operation 
as a physical preparation for marriage. This reason is stated 
by the Bechuanas, and some of the other Bantus. (Joyce, 
Ency. Brit., 1911, Vol. IV, p. 604.) So, among some tribes of 
the Malay Archipelago and of South America, circumcision 
is absolutely essential as preparation for marriage. (Gray, 
in 22.111:667; 62.1:438; see also 1884 edition.) In the Sou- 
dan and some other parts of Africa, no girl who is not infibu- 
lated can obtain a husband. (95:124; citing Escayrac de 
Lauture.) Egypt furnishes another illustration. (Gray, loc. 
tit. ; Joyce, in Ency. Brit., 1911, Vol. XIX, pp. 99-100.) 

As preparatory to marriage too, are the Australian rites of 
perforation of the hymen (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., Vol. XXIV, 
p. 169): This custom occurs in many other parts of the world. 
(95:123-125.) It ends the Zulu girl's seclusion, and admits 
her to freedom, and later to marriage. {Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 
Vol. XX, pp. 117-118). As preparatory to marriage, too, are 
the Australian rites of perforation of the hymen, the rite of 
Atna-Ariltha, introcision, etc. Crawley supposes that, in accord 
with his general theory, these operations are for the purpose of 
"removing the first and therefore most virulent part of female 
contagion, as the West African, 'takes off the fetish,' from a 
strange liquor by getting some one to 'handsel' it." (14:190- 
191.) As regards the practice of introcision, however, and, pos- 
sibly, some others, the Australians are said to consider that the 
rite of subincision for men necessitates an analogous operation 
for women. This purely physiological explanation obviates the 
contagion theory. 

Finally we have the physical conception of circumcision as 
securing the health and well-being of girls. ( Quechuas of Peru. ) 
This conception may be compared with the theory of the now 
obsolete gynecology, with its widespread reliance on the general 
therapeutic value of ovariotomy. Rather than presence of ideas 
of sacrifice, etc., we seem more frequently to detect crude pro- 
totypes of the modern hygienic removal of vestigiaal organs, 
lymphoid tissue growth and the like. 



van waters: adolescent girl 57 

Some of the native reasons are pedagogical, for example: 
"to make the girl more skilfui and capable in her daily work" 
(Pano of South America; Gray, in 22.111:667); to keep her 
from weariness or laziness (Indonesia, 87: 523; Gray, in 22. Ill: 
667), or, as among the Nandi of East Africa, circumcision and 
ordeals are for the purpose of making the girl "courageous and 
strong." (Hollis, Nandi, pp. 57-82.) Among the Australians, 
cutting the ovary is said to exist as a punishment (62.11:235) ; 
so, punishment of girls in certain parts of India, includes muti- 
lation of the sex-organs. 

A religious turn is given to this practice by the Tecuna of 
Western Brazil who circumcise their girls, "to remove unclean- 
ness." (Gray, in 22.111:668.) The religious nature is seen 
further among some of the Uaupes tribes of South America, 
among whom the rite may be reduced to a mere gash cut in the 
vulva, for ceremonial purposes, or "to banish evil." In Abys- 
sinia, circumcision of girls is under the influence of the cult of 
the Virgin, fused with that of a pagan goddess who was protector 
of chastity. Littmann, in 22.1:58.) The religious significance 
may be indicated as among the Suk, by use of the circumcision 
song and dances in the religious thanksgiving for grass in time 
of rain. (Beech, The Suk, p. 34.) 

Among the A-Kikuyu all members of the tribe must be cir- 
cumcised ; ' ' none otherwise can take part in any of the religious 
rites." (Routledge, W. S., With a Prehistoric People, Lon- 
don, 1910, p. 151. 

By far the most numerous explanations are those which are 
social, such as admission to the nation, or sign that property 
may be inherited, etc. (A-Kikuyu: Bantu: Masai: Egyptians: 
Indonesia, etc.) Circumcision occurs with the Bantus fre- 
quently as a "civil rite," permitting boys to govern the coun- 
try, and girls to associate on equal terms with mature members 
of the tribe. Both sexes form fraternities with all members 
of their own sex circumcised at the same time, and this bond 
is as enduring as kinship. (Theol. Hist, and Ethnogr. of Syria, 
London, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 112-117.) 

This civil aspect has analogies in the very different custom 
of requiring evidence of the girl's virginity as a legal safe- 
guard to her rights. Thus, among the Jews, "the tokens of 
the damsel's virginity" must be given to her parents to pro- 
tect her in case of later accusation. (Deut., XXII:15-17.) 



58 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Similar badges of social status are preserved in China, Arabia, 
and among the Chuvashes. (95, p. 124.) Circumcision, as 
"a sign of maturity," is performed by the many African peo- 
ples (63.1:37), the Indians of North East Peru (Gray, 
T. H., 22.111:667), as a means of identifying the girl 
with the tribe (Nandi). With this may be compared the state- 
ment of the Bawenda, circumcision "has come to us from other 
tribes." (Wassmann, The Baivenda, 1908, pp. 61-62.) Not 
only is the custom of circumcision borrowed, but it may recede 
under foreign influence, thus showing its dependent and sec- 
ondary character. The Suk, near the Turkana, do not circum- 
cise as do their tribesmen who live elsewhere ; the operation 
has been abandoned for both sexes, so that in time of war they 
may not be distinguished from their enemies. (Beech, Op. cit., 
pp. 20-21.) So, in Madagascar the ceremony of circumcision 
has been obscured and abbreviated in recent years through 
contact with other peoples. Here the only part played by girls 
in the ceremony is the circumcision dance performed by those 
arrived at puberty. (See Anthropos, 1912.) Many peoples of 
Africa circumcise the girl at puberty in order to preserve the 
life of the child who will be born of her in the future. (Gray, 
in 22.111:667.) Some of the Naga tribes of Manipur (61.11: 
220-235) practice infibulation so that parents of adolescents 
may be relieved from necessity of providing property, gifts, 
etc., in case of an early marriage, the amount to be given by 
the parents being fixed by law. (Hodson, p. 199.) We have 
here two extreme types of social explanation; in one instance 
the pubertal custom is determined by the future generation, 
in the other by the past. In neither is there direct relation 
to adolescence itself. 

C. Other Puberty-Customs 

The remaining primitive reasons for customs relating to the 
adolescent girl may be roughly grouped under the following 
heads : esthetic, physical, pedagogical, religious and social. 

1. Esthetic. 

Although the vast majority of puberty-rites have esthetic fea- 
tures, ranging from personal decoration and use of cosmetics 
to the highest forms of primitive art, as seen in adolescent 
games, songs, dances, pantomime, pageants and dramas, story- 



van waters: adolescent girl 59 

telling, arts and crafts, and the various forms of pictorial art, 
painting, carving and the like, it is interesting to note that 
an esthetic reason for these rites is given only very rarely. The 
reasons themselves are usually equivocal. The Fijians and Tas- 
manians practised cicatrization solely for decoration. Also 
"rows of wart-like spots are burned along the arms and backs" 
of girls, for ornament. (Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the 
Fijians, p. 137.) Cicatrices of the Australians have, no mean- 
ing but ornament, though Spencer and Gillen note their rela- 
tion to puberty and scars cut in mourning. (85:42. See also 
Curr, E. M., The Australian Race, 4 vols. Melbourne and Lon- 
don, 1886-1887, Vol. II, p. 475.) Some tribes of Madagascar 
make incisions simply for ornament. (Sibree, J., The Great 
African Island. London, 1880, p. 210.) The Kadars chip the 
teeth of girls at puberty, "to prevent ugliness," though this is 
the only tribe or caste in India to practice this custom (42:1: 
24-25). In some parts of the Malay Archipelago, teeth are 
filed and blackened, white teeth being "like dogs'." (95:174.) 
Burmans stain the teeth black as decoration. (Temple, in 
22.111:32.) Some of the Makalaka tribes, north of the Zam- 
besi, "break out their top incisor teeth from sheerest vanity. 
Their women say that it is only horses that eat with all their 
teeth, and that men ought not to eat like horses." (Holub, 
Seven Years in South Africa, 1881, "Vol. II, p. 259.) Other 
African tribes and some Australians knock out the teeth of 
girls, so they will "not be refused on account of ugliness." 
(Humboldt, cited by Westermarck, p. 174.) Although Wester- 
marck holds that painting the girl at the first menstruation, 
assumption of labrets, nose and lip rings, etc., are due solely 
to desire for attracting the opposite sex, explanations as stated 
by primitive peoples appear usually more complex. (Wester- 
marck, p. 172. ) 

The Jicarilla ceremony (Athapascan) representing dramati- 
cally by girl and boy, the racial origin of the people, contains, 
in the native text, some apparently purely esthetic elements. 
(31:266-268.) 

2. Physical. 

These reasons may be divided into those which relate 
to the girl's personal welfare, and those which relate to 
society. Examples of the first type are: knocking out teeth 



60 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

to assist in breathing (Pepos, 61.11:424); use of scratch- 
stick to prevent baldness, grayness, and marks on the body 
(Lillooet, 89:264); use of drinking-tube, to prevent stomach 
trouble (Tahltan, Emmons, G. T., Univ. Penn. Anthrop. Pub., 
1911, p. 165) ; headbiting to cause heavy growth of hair (Aus- 
tralian Arunta, 85, 213 et seq.) ; eating the pounded flesh of a 
black hen, having laid for the first time, in order to make the 
back and waist strong (Cochin Oddens, 42.11:391); painting, 
to preserve health or comfort, — thus, the ancient Egyptians 
painted a rim of green color around the eyes to moderate the 
glare of the sun, and green malachite paint is today used in 
Central Africa as a disinfectant, or we find paint used to keep 
flies away. (Spearing, The Childhood of Art, London, 1912, 
p. 381.) Paint is not only a medicine, but a sign, sometimes 
of maturity (thus among some Tapuyas of Brazil, if the girl, 
"be marriageable, and yet not courted by any, the mother 
paints her with some red colour about the eyes." Nieuhoff, 
"Voyages and Travels into Brazil"; Pinkerton, "Collection of 
Voyages," XVI:878). The Maidu, however, erase paint from 
the girl, in order to show that her first menstruation is over. 
Tooth filing also serves as a sign; thus, in the Malay Archipel- 
ago the common way of saying the girl has arrived at puberty 
is to say, "she has had her teeth filed." (Crawford, Hist, of 
the Indian Archipelago, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1820, Vol. I, pp. 
215 et seq.) So, too, the various taboos are explained: the 
Kafir girl must not see the sun, "lest she shrivel up" 
(Kidd, Dudley, The Essential Kafir. London, 1904, p. 209) ; 
the same is true of sun and fire among the Dene; among the 
Yaraikanna, if struck by the sun, her nose will be diseased; 
she must eat nothing that lives in the salt water, or a snake 
will kill her; she must not wear a buckskin headdress, or the 
deer will be displeased, and, in later years, give her headache 
(Lillooet) ; so among the Tarahumares of Mexico, she must not 
touch deer antlers, or her breasts will fall off (Lumholtz, Un- 
knoivn Mexico, New York, 1902, p. 274). She must not eat 
the uterus, head or feet of any animal, to prevent abscess in 
the ear (Tahltan). Among the Assiniboine there is strict taboo 
that no menstruating girl step over anyone, or see the sick, 
or approach a medicine bundle, in order to prevent her from 
menstruating indefinitely. (Lowie) ; the Shoshone give the 
same reason for restricting the girl to a vegetable diet (Lowie) : 



van waters: adolescent girl 61 

the Maidu carefully guard her from sight of blood, lest she 
be very ill (Dixon). 

Explanations of the Australian Arunta and Ilfirra tribes are 
similarly explicit. If food restrictions are violated a series of 
evil physical consequences will follow, non-development of the 
breasts, malformation of the genitals, continued flow of the 
menses, premature age, abnormal sex desire, etc. Girls are 
allowed to eat only young nestlings otherwise she will not be 
able to nurse her child. (85:472-473.) 

Customs of the second type have to do usually with childbirth, 
and rearing. Thus the Dieguehos, and the Mission Indians, 
"roast" the girl, and throw seeds over her to influence the 
organ of generation, and to make her prolific. This ceremony 
has also a religious meaning. The new hair arrangement of 
the Hopi, imitating the mature squash, while the former coiffure 
has suggested the blossom, is explained as a sign of maturity, 
"and to promote fertility." Among the Zuhi, at the ceremony 
of the Rabbit Hunt of the Gods, the first rabbit is killed, and the 
blood allowed to trickle down the girl's legs for the sake of her 
fecundity. Among the Lkuugen, the head of any fish is tabooed, 
so that she may ' ' secure good luck in marriage. ' ' The Shuswap 
girl goes through a regular course of physical training to insure 
the strength of her child. She undergoes burning, etc., to en- 
able her to withstand the pain of childbirth. Similar ordeals 
are common in Africa and elsewhere. Many taboos relate to 
the child. If the Tahltan girl ate the feet of the mountain- 
goat, the child would be lazy, and a poor traveler. The girl, 
among the Tarahumares, will not eat the pancreas, for fear of 
childlessness. So, long periods of fasting are performed for 
the good of offspring. The Tlingit girl fasts, and eats spar- 
ingly for eight months in order to insure the rebirth of her 
dead relative. The most conspicuous example is the fast of 
the girls and boys in the Andaman Islands, as a "test for fit- 
ness for marriage, and endurance and self-denial requisite to 
support a family" (51 :62). Throughout the other types of rea- 
sons there are constant references to the future generation, on 
the social and religious side, as well as the physical. 

3. Pedagogical. 

Here, too, we find motives readily separated into those which 
concern personal training of the girl, and those which relate 



62 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

to her preparation for life in the group. Both vary in 
degree from the mere song among the Maidu, enumerating all 
kinds of agricultural work and food products expected of the 
girl in future, to the four year period of education among some 
of the Indians of British Columbia, and the elaborate training 
of girls in great seminaries among the ancient Mexicans. 
(Mason.)* 

It is no accident that these examples have been chosen from 
America; whatever the modern educational status of the Ameri- 
can girl may be, it is a fact that, among the American Indians, 
she received the highest degree of attention to be found among 
any primitive people. 

The following modes of personal training are common: walk- 
ing, running, leaping, digging, climbing, swimming, to obtain 
tirelessness and lightness of foot (Shuswap, Lillooet, etc.) ; 
carrying pots of water, ''that she may be strong" (Kafir) ; 
hard labor at the home of her future mother-in-law during the 
first day of the first menstruation, "to promote industry and 
fertility" (Hopi Indians) ; vigils for long periods so that she 
will not be lazy (Cheyenne Indians). Among the Haida the 
same purpose is served by sleeping on rocks. The Thompson 
Indians ceremonially nog both sexes at adolescence to prevent 
laziness. The African Bawenda beat girls, and chill them for 
hours in the river, "to harden them" (Wassmann). Other 
forms of hard usage are prescribed to "prepare them for fu- 
ture tasks as wives and mothers." Beating, as preparation for 
matrimony, also occurs at Torres Straits. Among the Shekani 
the girl submits to hard treatment, undergoes long fasting and 
gazing at the sun till a swoon is produced, "to break the will 
of the candidate, and provide secrecy"; also "to produce sub- 
mission and bravery." The A-Kikuyu sing a special song to 
preserve the courage of the girl during circumcision. (Rout- 
ledge, W. S., With a Prehistoric People. London, 1910, p. 155.) 
Among the Akamba, elaborate precautions are taken to test the 

* Note : Some of the education of the girl in ancient Mexico was given 
by the mother, as is shown on ancient inscriptions, the girl was taught cook- 
ing, meal preparation, weaving, pottery, and. decoration. Her food allow- 
ance and punishments were the same as those of the boy. At eight punish- 
ment was with thorns, at ten with clubs, at eleven with fire. (Tozzer, 
Alfred M., "The Value of Ancient Mexican Manuscripts in the study of 
the General Development of Writing." Ann. Beport of the Smithsonian 
Inst., Washington, 1911 [1912], pp. 493-506). 



van waters: adolescent girl 63 

girl's courage during this operation; two balls of goat's dung 
are balanced on toe and knee, and, if one of them falls to the 
ground, the girl is disgraced and must throw away the warrior's 
garments with which she has been clad. (Hobley, C. W., Eth- 
nology of the A-Kamba and Other East African Tribes. Cam- 
bridge, 1910. pp. 68-77.) Vomiting is resorted to among the 
Luiseno, to free from badness, or to detect badness. (48:31.) 
Girls among the Indians of North Carolina were formerly 
secluded in the dark, "to harden them." (Ploss.) The 
Haida practiced seclusion, fasting and vigils, so that the 
girl might avoid garrulousness or excessive hilarity in later life 
(Swanton.). During the severe trials of the Queensland tribes, 
advice is given, "to soften the heart"; while the Kurnai knead 
the stomach, "to drive out selfishness and greed." The Vun- 
takutchin Indians give the na'ive reason for seclusion, careful 
guarding, intermittent fasting and taboos extending over a 
year, that this will prevent a second year of seclusion as a 
punishment. The ' ' roasting ' ' ceremony common to the Luiseno, 
Dieguenos, and other Mission Indians, contains features of gift- 
giving, exhortation, etc., to teach the girls to be generous and 
to give to the poor and needy. (68:28.) Property and gifts 
are distributed by the Assiniboine, "to honor the girl." So, 
the dramatic presentation of culture-history of the South West 
Athapascans, is for the purpose of securing for the girl "a 
happy, useful and honorable life." (31:266.) 

Thus, the modes of education are not always severe. The 
Maidu have a good woman breathe or whistle into the mouth 
of the girl, so that she will be brave and good natured (Dixon). 
During the seclusion and fast of some of the Brazilian Indians, 
the father sings at dawn to encourage the girl, and to enume- 
rate the kinds of food she soon may eat. So, the father of the 
girl of some of the peoples of Torres Straits, weeps when she 
returns from her month long-seclusion, to express his sorrow 
for her absence. (Yam and Tutu Islands.) The Korean 
capping-ceremony emphasized the pedagogic value of assump- 
tion of garments of maturity: "In this fortunate moon and 
on this lucky day an addition is made to your dress. You must 
now discard all childish thoughts, and obey, so that you may 
attain perfect virtue. May you live long and attain much hap- 
piness by the aid of this blessing." (49:518.) 

Occasionally we find no education given. Among the Masai, 
"prior to marriaere the young girls do nothing of a menial 







64 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

nature. They spend their time in dancing, singing, and adorn- 
ing themselves; and though they live with the warriors they 
are exempted from all work. More usually they do not even 
cook the food they eat." (Hinde, S. L., and H., The Last of 
the Masai, London, 1901, p. 67.) 

Customs to train the girl for social duties are especially 
numerous. The "Greegree Bush," of the Vai of Liberia, gives 
extensive training in manners, morals, industry, and the wis- 
dom and folk-lore of the tribe. The A-Kamba have sticks, 
carved with riddles containing tribal secrets, and wisdom, which 
must first be constructed and then solved by the girls before 
they are released. The A-Kamba combine both symbolism and 
systematic instruction. As the candidates arrive for the initia- 
tion ceremony they are met by an elder, an old man for the 
boys, an old woman for the girls. Each is given a sip of native 
beer, and ushered into the hut. Here they are seized by an 
elder and thrust through a back door, where a freshly built 
door leads into the woods. The girls must gather firewood and 
the boys must hunt. "When they return to the village they 
must use the new door and new road, and thenceforth during 
the ceremony. The young people stay in the hut eight days, 
and are lectured to daily. Boys sleep on one side, girls on the 
other. Boys are taught to make bows and arrows; the girls 
learn basket making. Tutors (Mubwiki), are responsible for 
their conduct. (39:74.) The Baganda give special instruction 
and hold a ceremony, so that the girl may "be a successful 
manager of a plantain grove and to be an expert cook." 
(Roseoe, J., The Baganda. London, 1911, pp. 75-79.) 
Thus the Taos have ceremonial performance of agriculture 
to train them for the future; while their supreme duty is 
indicated by groups of girls carrying about for some time 
a miniature house, or skeleton roof on their shoulders, as 
"symbolical of their position as pillars of the home." (94 :126.) 
Although this symbolical method of education is very com- 
mon, and is found everywhere, as well as that consisting 
solely of imitation, systematic instruction is by no means lack- 
ing, as is seen among the Shuswap, where girls practice, under 
instruction of parent or attendant, arts and crafts for years 
that they "might be fitted to fill a useful place in the family." 

Sex-pedagogy for the adolescent girl is rarely neglected 
among primitive peoples. Among methods used are, direct 
instruction by the mother, or old women, physical practices and 



VAN WATERS | ADOLESCENT GIEL 65 

operations, songs and dances, ceremonies, acts of initiation, 
courtship, sexual intercourse, nakedness, examinations for vir- 
ginity (Pedi-Bantu), ceremonies employing objects of nature 
as symbols and modes of imagery, religious rites performed with 
reference to generation, legends and tales illustrating the cos- 
mic process as among the Omaha (25:495), guarding, seclu- 
sion, taboos, exhortations, as contrasted with the girl's admis- 
sion to complete freedom in many different areas of the world, 
and finally the method of direct observation. This appears 
among the Bontoc Igorot, where the young child is admitted 
to the Olag, or club house of the unmarried women, and ob- 
serves the concourse of lovers from her early years. (Jenks.) 
Similarly, Nordenskiold reports of some Eio Pilcomayo Indians 
that girls have nothing to learn of sex-life after puberty, though 
unchastity is extremely rare. So Powers remarks of the Cali- 
fornia Achomawi, one of the most primitive tribes of North 
America : 

"An AchSmawi mother seldom teaches her daughters any of the arts of 
barbaric housekeeping before their marriage. They learn them by imita- 
tion and experiment after they have grown old enough to perceive the 
necessity thereof. ... As children are taught nothing, so they are 
never punished . . . it is a wonder that they grow up with any virtue 
whatever, for the conversation of their elders in their presence is often of 
the filthiest description. But the children of savages far less often make 
wreck of body and soul than do those of the civilized, because when the 
great mystery of maturity confronts them they know what it means and 
how to meet it." (64:271.) 

4. Religious and Magical. 

Miss Fletcher has best described the attitude of the American 
Indian to the period of puberty, in its religious significance: 
''The maturity of the sexes is a period of serious and religious 
experiences which are preparatory by their character for the 
entrance of the youth or maiden into the religious and secular 
responsibilities of life, both individual and tribal. Among the 
tribes which hold especial public ceremonies announcing the 
maturity of a girl, these rites are held not far from the actual 
time of puberty, and indicate the close of childhood and en- 
trance of the person into the social status of womanhood. The 
public festival has, however, been preceded by private religious 
rites." (Smithsonian Report, 1889-1890, p. 484.) Among the 
Omaha and their cognates, this conception was expressed by 



66 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

the rite of Nozhizho, not obligatory for girls, but open to them. 
The term "Nozhizho" is "to stand sleeping," "meaning that 
during the rite the person stands as if oblivious of the outward 
world and conscious only of what transpires in his own mind. 
He enters into personal relation with the mysterious power that 
permeates and controls all nature." The mind is now said "to 
become white"; "in native symbolism night is the mother of 
day, so the mind of the newborn child is dark, like the night 
of its birth ; gradually it begins to discern and remember things, 
as objects seen in the early dawn; finally it is able to remem- 
ber and observe discriminatingly, then the mind is said to be 
'white,' as with the clear light of day. . . . He is on the verge 
of his conscious individual life. He is 'old enough to know 
sorrow.' " Thus, the rite is performed in the spring. Clay is 
put on the head. Some of the Indians explain it as meaning 
"humility"; others say that it refers to "soft clay or mud 
brought up by the diving animals, out of which the earth was 
created." After long fast the adolescent gains a vision of 
animal or plant, which must be procured, and becomes a trophy 
or visible sign of the vision, "the union with the unseen." 
L (25:128-133.) A very important element in the rite is the fact 
that the adolescent, in dreaming of the moon, may see a burden 
strap, or a bundle of arrows held out. Thus if a youth receives 
the burden strap, emblem of the woman's life, he must pursue 
her avocations, use her language and dress; while the same is 
the case with the maiden. Here, the fundamental nature of 
the life-role is determined at puberty, by means of the secret 
consciousness and inclination of the individual. A similar con- 
ception and practice is found among the Shuswap, Lillooet, 
and others ; the change must be made, always at puberty, or at 
the end of training. Bearing of this custom on the problems 
of the modern adolescent, will be apparent when 'we turn to 
compare the primitive with the present-day treatment of de- 
linquency in girls. 

The above account has been given in detail because it illus- 
trates concretely two significant points, first, that the simplest 
rite may have profound religious significance, often lost to a 
less highly trained observer than Miss Fletcher; second, the 
exact meaning of primitive ritual and symbolism may be dif- 
ferently explained by members of the same tribe, and hence we 
should draw up no adamantine scheme of conclusions. 



van waters: adolescent girl 67 

Religious and magical explanations of puberty-customs often 
turn on guarding the girl from evil. Thus the Lillooet and the 
Maidu (Dixon) use a deer-hoof rattle to "protect from evil 
influences and to keep off ghosts." (Teit.) Among the Ts'et- 
s'aut, a special hat and amulets are worn constantly, and the 
face is blackened, "to protect from evil." (4:609.) Beating, 
sometimes causing death, cicatrization, stinging with poison 
plants and insects are used, "to banish evil." (Caribs, some 
Uaupes, some African tribes. ) The milder form is seen among the 
Mission Indians, who wave branches, "to keep off spirits." 
(68:32.) Seclusion serves the same purpose: "to guard against 
'mystery' " (Tlingit), to guard against supernatural power 
(Salinan), to keep away evil spirits (Vai, Gola-Mendi, etc.). 
Other means of warding off demons, such as offerings, juggling, 
exorcism, torches, songs, lustration, anointing, etc., have already 
been mentioned among the Cochin tribes and castes. The An- 
yanya rename the girl, "to deceive evil spirits"; the Pima 
Indians consider the name during puberty as taboo, if spoken, 
the girl will have "bad luck." The numerous taboos often 
keep the girl from evil. Thus the sun and fire taboo among 
the Ahts is explained. This conception reaches its most elabo- 
rate form among the Shasta Indians, where all taboos of food, 
sleep, sun, moon, fire, clear water are to "keep off evil spirits 
and dreams," further precautions being taken by sleeping 
with the head in a basket, the opening of which has been 
guarded with a magic stick, burned and renewed each morn- 
ing. (Dixon.) 

Other explanations deal with guarding the community from 
evil. Among the Shastas, if all expedients failed to keep dreams 
of public calamity from the girl, she was burnt as sacrifice. 
So, in New Caledonia, she is severely whipped, to drive illness 
from the chief. Among many peoples she is secluded, "to 
prevent loss of game supply" (Dene); "to protect the ani- 
mals," or so that "the luck of the hunter will not disappear." 
(Tlingit, Malemut, etc., etc.) 

Many customs are explained as consecratory or purifying in 
function. The Wintun of California gave the girl the sacred 
broth, or drink of "khlup" or buckeye, in order to consecrate 
them; it served also as a preparation for skilful dancing. 
(64:168.) We have considered the rite of circumcision from 
this point of view. Fire, tests, ordeals, isolation, and fasts are 



68 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

used for' purification among many peoples. Disappearance into 
the mountains (Thompson Indians), "smoking" the girl over 
sweet grass and burning coals, gifts, dieting and purging are 
means of purification among American tribes. (Cheyenne, 
Mission, Pawnee, etc.) Sexual intercourse, both before and 
after puberty is sometimes held necessary for purification. In- 
stances among Asiatic peoples have already been given, in the 
section on primitive theories of menstruation. If this custom 
is omitted among the Nayars (Cochin), the girl is considered 
religiously impure, and is prohibited from entering temples. 

Means taken to insure spiritual welfare for the girl are: 
prayers (Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap, etc., and many African 
tribes), offerings, to obtain blessings, or guardian spirit, to 
become liberal, or to secure spiritual insight, and the ability 
to detect witchcraft, etc. (Mission, Omaha, Yokuts, etc.), draw- 
ings and paintings on rocks (Thompson, and other tribes of 
British Columbia, some of Mission tribes, etc.), preservation of 
the first blood (Australians), and divination by means of blood 
of the first menstruation (Kaniyans and others). 

Other customs are explained as done in obedience to a divine 
command. Illustrations were seen in the treatment of tattoo- 
ing. The Pelew Islanders believe that perforation of the nasal 
septum is necessary for winning eternal bliss. Tooth-knock- 
ing among the Dieyerie of Australia is due to the command 
of a good spirit, Muramura, who did so to the first human 
child, and was so pleased with the result that he commanded 
all others to do the same. 

The religious conception of the sanctity of puberty is occa- 
sionally found, as has already been apparent. Among the 
Ceram Laut, "only a virgin arrived at puberty and a young 
boy are permitted to mix the holy oil used in ceremonial." 
So, with the Zuni, the adolescent girl, though not necessarily 
virgin, is the central figure in the corn rites of the sacred Corn 
Maidens. (86:196.) The Athapascan drama-ceremony has 
also strongly religious features. In the Tusayan Snake Cere- 
monies, a girl and a boy are chosen to represent the sacred 
characters. (Fewkes, Sixteenth Ann. Report of Bur. of Amer. 
Ethnol., 1894-1896.) The Dravidians used formerly to sacri- 
fice a young girl, and allow her blood to drip to the ploughed 
fields to insure the stability and fertility of the earth. 



van waters: adolescent girl 69 

For additional references to the religious significance of pu- 
berty for both sexes, see also Brinton, Religions of Primitive 
Peoples (New York, 1898, pp. 197-200). 

5. Social. 

The following explanations emphasize the relation of the 
adolescent girl to society, although many of the reasons al- 
ready given are also determined more or less by social factors. 

Puberty, as a period of socialization, is recognized by en- 
trance of the girl into various groups and secret societies. The 
Olag of the Bontoc Igorot, numerous girls' houses in Africa, 
traces of a kind of freemasonry among women of certain of 
the Melanesians (Seligmann) suggest this. More definite is 
the society formed by the Mpongwe, to which girls are ad- 
mitted at puberty, "to protect them from harsh treatment by 
the men. Girls circumcised together, among some of the Bantu 
form a fraternity. Girls among the Navaho undergo the rite 
of flagellation as admission to a secret society. So, too, the 
Zuni girls may enter various fraternal organizations. Among 
the Australian Central tribes, there exists now no elaborate 
social initiation for girls as with boys. Formerly, however, 
such rites are said by the Australians themselves to have existed 
for girls. (85:457.) 

Social aspects of seclusion, taboos, mutilations, etc., have been 
neglected by most writers. Thus the Baganda mother some- 
times produces deep scarification upon her daughters at pu- 
berty, "so they would not be chosen as wives of the king." 
(Roscoe.) Among some of the Australians, the little finger is 
mutilated and eaten off by ants, as a distinguishing mark of 
the tribe. Among the Australian Arunta and Ilfirra tribes 
failure on the part of the girl to perform the sand-winnowing 
ceremony, and to undergo the operation of noseboring would 
be regarded as a grave offense against her mother. (85:459.) 
A very human social reason for depilation is given by the 
Bontoc Igorot, "they pull out the pelvic hair in order that 
they will not be noticeable when they work or travel naked, 
they wish to appear like the children, they say." (43:42.) 
So, with seclusion, flogging and hard usage of the girl among 
some of the Algonkian tribes; it is done that the girl may be- 
come a healer and bringer of good fortune to the community, 
and that she may insure safe childbirth to women. Thus the 



70 JOUBNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Jicarilla ceremony is performed, "to bring good fortune to the 
whole community." £31:266.) The Seri jacal, in which the 
girl resides for a year in complete freedom, is for the purpose 
of establishing the probation of her future husband. (McGee.) 
So the gambling-stick practice of the girl among the Shuswap 
is intended to secure luck for the man who will marry her. 
(Teit.) Similarly with taboos, although a large portion are 
designed to keep the girl from evil, or to educate her, it is 
evident that many are conceived entirely from the social point 
of view. In the Torres Straits all have reference to the pro- 
tection of the food supply. Can we not envisage this sort of 
taboo as a primitive system of taxation levied by society on 
the girl, at a period when her social instinct is beginning to 
expand ? 

It has been, of course, impossible to enumerate the entire list 
of 219 native explanations of puberty customs. In the material 
studied, their distribution in the above groups has been as 
follows: esthetic, 9; physical, 29; pedagogical, 29; religious, 70; 
social, 82. 

VII. Sex-Discrimination 

The ancient problem of sex-discrimination, involving natural 
sex-differences, economic and social conditions, religion, pre- 
marital status, etc., strikes at the root of the problem of adoles- 
cence. The degree of sex-discrimination is well indicated in 
puberty-ceremonies, since these are merely crystallized expres- 
sions of a fairly permanent attitude. Discrimination may be 
against the girl, as shown in the data collected by Webster and 
Schurtz. It may be in favor of the girl, as with the Maidu, 
Shasta and Seri tribes of North America. 

A. Absence of Discrimination 
The following peoples, however, seem to have no sex-discrimi- 
nation in their puberty-ceremonies, or if it occurs it is of 
minimum degree: 

Africa: A-Kamba; A-Kikuyu; Bamangwato (here the "girls flog boys 
of the same age to prove if they are men") ; Bantu (some tribes) ; Basuto; 
Bawenda; Cross River Natives; ancient Egyptians (apparently none) ; 
Gola; Kafir; Masai; Mendi; Nandi; Shekani; Suk; Vai; Yaos. 

Asia: Ahoms; Alfurese; Andamanese; ancient Brahmans (among mod- 
ern Brahmans restrictions required of girls are common also to students, 
ascetics, mourners, or the sick) ; Burmans; Cambodians (same customs for 



VAN waters: adolescent girl 71 

boys, if they are to be educated; discrimination exists between different 
social classes of girls) ; Chamars; Kadars; Koreans; Lolos of Kientchang; 
Lushei-Kuki clans, of Tibeto-Burman stock; Nieobarese; pagan races of 
the Malay Peninsula (some tribes) ; aneient Semites (both youths and girls 
offered as sacred prostitutes) ; ancient Syrians (both sexes offered hair 
as puberty sacrifice) ; Forest and Rock Veddas. 

Indonesia, Australasia, Polynesia: Australia (some of the Central 
tribes; Queensland tribes) ; Bontoc Igorot; Borneo (some tribes, including 
the Kayan) ; Ceram Laut: Land Dyaks (while the Sea Dyaks of same 
race and culture practise much discrimination); Easter Island; Koita; 
Massim; Melanesians (some tribes); Muralag; Papuans (some tribes) ; 
Saibai of Torres Straits; Sabanuns of Sindangan Bay; Tasmanians; Tutu 
of Torres Straits; Tubetube; Yam Island natives; Yule Island (some 
tribes). 

North America: Eskimo (some tribes); Athapascan or D6ne" (some 
tribes); Hopi; Lillooet of Salishan stock; Miwok; Navaho; Omaha and 
cognates (some tribes) ; Pawnee; Pima; Shuswap and Thompson, of Sali- 
shan stock; Yuchi; Zufii. 

South America: Arawak (some tribes) ; Ashuslays; Bolivia (some 
tribes) ; Chorotis (apparently) ; Coroados (according to Ploss) ; Quechuas; 
Goajiros; Karaja; Onas; Peru (some tribes) ; UaupGs (some tribes ap- 
parently) ; Yahgans. 



B. Discriminations Common to Other Social Groups 

In addition to this list, there are numerous peoples who give 
to each sex an equal degree of attention, but the mode of treat- 
ment is fundamentally different. Again, among some peoples 
the girl at puberty merely enters into a situation, analogous 
to that of other groups in the community, such . as war- 
riors, shamen, adolescent boys, hunters, sowers and reapers, 
mourners, pregnant women, husbands, fathers, etc., who are 
occasionally or permanently regarded as requiring special 
attention. In other words, this kind of discrimination is not 
based on what separates the sexes, but upon that which unites 
them, i. e., common disabilities arising from primitive concep- 
tions of the taboo that attends a crisis. Van Gennep has sought 
to demonstrate a sequence of initiation ceremonies, or "rites 
de passage," for every important stage of life. Each stage, 
or crisis, is thus interdependent. Hence, according to Van 
Gennep, so-called "puberty-rites" cannot be understood, if the 
point of view of sequence is ignored. It is, however, equally 
true, and has been equally ignored, that customs relating to 



72 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

the adolescent girl cannot be studied apart from their relation 
to other social groups and classes. 

The following illustrations are typical of this relation. 
"Warriors among the Dene Indians, for the first four campaigns, 
had to undergo the same taboos as the girl during her seclu- 
sion. Boys were required to use the scratch-stick and sinew- 
charms in the same manner. Boys among the Creek Indians 
during their twelve months of initiation also used the scratch- 
stick, and were prohibited from touching head or ears with the 
hands. (Bourke.) The Ojibwa (Algonkian) warriors, for the 
first three campaigns, could not touch the head with the hands. 
(Compare the numerous taboos relating to the head of the 
adolescent girl, with the widespread practice of preserving the 
whole, or part of the human head, particularly in the case of 
shamans. Dall, W. H., "On Masks, Labrets, and Certain Ab- 
original Customs," Third Ann. Report Bur. Ethnol., 1881, 
pp. 73-202; especially see p. 94.) The Pima warrior, after 
killing an enemy, must undergo strictest seclusion for sixteen 
days; he must fast four days, and for two days go without 
water. During this entire period his wife must not eat salt. 
He is not permitted to touch his head with his fingers, but 
must use the scratch-stick, the head being covered with plaster 
of mud. He must keep absolute silence, and bathe frequently 
in the river. For some time after his seclusion he must stand 
back till all others are served, when partaking of food and 
drink. (69:204-205; compare 7:475-476.) Similar customs for 
warriors and those who shed human blood are found in widely 
different areas. Among the Fijians, the son of a chief, after 
killing his first man, is rigorously secluded for three days; 
he is forbidden to sleep, to lie down, or to change his dress. 
His head is anointed with red tumeric and oil. ' (14:552.) 
Kafirs and Bechuanas practice ceremonies of purification after 
their fights. Bantu tribes shave their heads after killing any- 
one in battle. Among the Wagogo, of German East Africa, 
the father of a youth who has shed blood gives him a goat, 
' ' to cleanse his sword. ' ' Thus, as Westermarck also points out, 
a state of uncleanness is incurred by shedding human blood, 
but this does not necessarily involve moral guilt. Purification 
is necessary to free the individual and the community from the 



van waters: adolescent girl 73 

danger of infection. Gradually, however, its cause becomes 
part of moral disapproval, and the state and act of purifica- 
tion are looked upon as a punishment. (96.1:233.) We have 
seen how exactly this state of affairs is approximated by the 
girl during her first menstruation. 

So, too, the father or husband of the pubescent girl may 
incur a like disability. Among the Northern Maidu, the hus- 
band must live on the same food as the girl during menstrua- 
tion, and he is debarred from hunting. (Dixon.) Certain 
Eskimo tribes restrict the youth betrothed to the girl from 
hunting during the period of her seclusion; this lasts one 
month, and meanwhile the youth undergoes a mitigated fast. 
There are also many other examples. Among the Thompson 
Indians, the father of a girl just arrived at puberty may 
not hunt nor trap for a month, and undergoes various restric- 
tions. (Teit.) Similar taboos exist for the husband of the 
pregnant woman, as is seen to an extreme degree among the 
Melanesians and others who practice the "couvade." (Codring- 
ton, The Melanesians, Oxford, 1891, p. 228.) 

Mourners are subject to special treatment in almost all parts 
of the world. (See 96.1: Chapt. xxxvii.) The Bogos of Africa 
prescribe a three-day fast for a son after the death of his 
father. Among the Brazilian Paressi the fast is for six days. 
The new born child with the Hare Indians is not allowed food 
until four days after birth, in order to "accustom it to fasting 
in the next world." While among the Tlingit and Songish In- 
dians the child is made to vomit. (12:147-149.) Parents 
among Upper Thompson River Indians abstained from fresh 
meat for several months after the death of a child. (Teit.) 
The Tlingits, and some peoples in British Columbia, regard 
mourners as being in a delicate condition; their faces are 
blackened, and they cover the head with ragged mats. They 
must speak little, as it is believed they would otherwise become 
chatterboxes. These customs find constant analogies in the 
primitive attitude toward the adolescent girl. 

It is impossible, in the limits of this thesis to give a com- 
prehensive list of customs common to adolescents of both sexes, 
among the same people. It is easy, however, as is seen in the 
list of "Constituent Elements of Puberty Customs," to point 
out identities of treatment when the whole world is considered. 



74 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSTCHOLOGT 

C. Some Factors of Discrimination 

1. Social Class. 

Social class is scarcely less influential in producing discrimi- 
nation than sex, or raee. This is seen among the Siamese, 
Cambodians, natives of the New Britain Group, among whom 
the very poor mark puberty, only by donning fringes across 
the shoulders, while those of the middle class are " caged" for 
a few months or years, and the rich undergo many restrictions 
and "caging," from the years of early childhood, up to ma- 
turity (16:285-294); some of the Cochin tribes and castes, 
where, in spite of the maximum degree of attention almost 
universally paid to puberty of girls, those who are very poor 
dispense with any ceremony (42.1:156-157), Ahoms, some of 
the Melanesians and many others. Distinction based on class 
would indicate that the puberty ceremony is not so much an 
initiation of the girl into sexual life, as into the social status 
of her people. We have noted the impinging of the ideas of 
the old upon the ceremonies and activities of adolescence.; this 
is seen nowhere more clearly than in discriminations based on 
religion and pre-marital status. 

2. Religion. 

The prominence of the religious element in puberty-cere- 
monies suggests that religion may be a causal factor in the 
degree and kind of discrimination in vogue. The problem 
arises, is there correlation between the religious ideas of a peo- 
ple and their treatment of the adolescent girl? In Abyssinia 
the cult of the Virgin, and that of a pagan goddess of chas- 
tity, show themselves in the rite of circumcision; in certain 
other parts of Africa where girls, at puberty, acquire special 
guardian divinities, we have seen that there is minimum sex- 
discrimination. The larger problem now emerges as to whether 
the presence or absence of female deities in tribal religion 
exerts an influence on the mode of treatment. So vast are the 
dimensions of this question, that we here can do no more than 
to state it. Many other factors enter, particularly those of 
economie-social environment. Facts seem to point to the con- 
clusion, however, that the female-deity conception does influ- 
ence the girl's status in puberty-ceremonial. 

Among the Zufiis, the supreme life-giving power is bisexual, 



van waters: adolescent girl 75 

referred to as He-She, Awonawilona; this conception dominates 
the whole of their religion and observance. In addition to this 
fundamental recognition of the female element there are, in 
Zuni belief, numerous woman-gods, the Moon Mother, Earth 
Mother, giver of vegetation, Corn Mother, and the ten Corn 
Maidens, upon whom even the gods of war in myth depend 
(p. 51), Salt Mother, and finally the Mother of Game. (86: 
22, 23, 90.) Parallel to this religious emphasis of the feminine 
we find no discrimination between the sexes at puberty; girls 
as well as boys may be theurgists, and through voluntary initia- 
tion enter the Kotikili fraternity, who personify the gods. 
(p. 423.) The most sacred religious festival of the Zuni is the 
drama of lild-hewe (when corn is foot high) or the reappear- 
ance of the corn maidens to earth, (p. 180.) It is performed 
by girls ornamented with cloud, sun, crescent, and star sym- 
bols, (p. 194.) 

Similar observance is found in the Pawnee Eako ceremony, 
where "all the people must unite their wills" to that of the 
woman in capacity of the Corn Mother, who leads them forth 
to a state of mystic union with the cosmos. Here, as previ- 
ously noted, no discrimination exists between the sexes at the 
period of puberty (23). 

Omaha tribes and cognates furnish another conspicuous ex- 
ample of this parallellism (25). 

So, among the Central Eskimo, as reported by Boas, the girl 
Sedna is regarded as a secondary deity, creator of all things 
having life, animal and vegetable ; she is protector and monopo- 
list of the sea and the sea animals. She is the protecting 
divinity of the Innuit, and most of their religious rites have 
reference to her. (4:583-587.) Among them also the sun is 
a woman (p. 598), her brother being the moon; while three 
sisters make lightning, thunder and rain (p. 600). Here we 
find minimum or no discrimination during the adolescence of 
the sexes. Girls may become shamans or angaJcohs. (Rink, 
cited in 12:322.) 

The most conspicuous example is that of the Yuchi, among 
whom men, in honor of the Sun-mother, actually place them- 
selves in the condition ceremonially of menstruating women 
through the rite of scarification. Here absolutely no discrimi- 
nation exists between the sexes at puberty. 

In other parts of the world, similar conditions obtain. The 



76 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Subamms of Sindangan Bay have no puberty observance; both 
boys and girls may become shamans with equal privilege, but 
the women are said to be particularly potent with female spir- 
itual beings. The sexes grow up in absolute equality, both 
being trained in industrial occupations. (13:53-73.) 

In India, we see, on one hand the widespread influence of 
the cult of the bloodthirsty goddess Kali, on the other, the 
over-stress of puberty in girls, premature intercourse, demon- 
ology, etc., among numerous native tribes and castes. (Cochin 
district, etc., 42.) So with the ancient Semites the custom 
of religious prostitution was correlated with the worship of a 
supreme goddess to whom a young god was subordinate. (Ho- 
garth, in 22.1:143.) The Bush Negroes of British Guiana in 
adopting certain phases of Christianity have humanized the 
Trinity, by including Mary; thus they speak of "God, Jesu, 
and Mari." (Furlong, inform 'n, 1913.) For numerous other 
types of female deities see Asozer's The Living God, pp. 126- 
278, and 79:234-236. 

Whatever the causal relation between the presence of female 
divinities and the amount of sex-discrimination may be, it is 
impossible not to assume a great pedagogic influence exerted 
by these divinities upon the life of the adolescent girl. Chris- 
tianity (Catholicism) recognizes in its female divinity only the 
virtue of chastity, yet the influence of the Virgin-Cult has 
been enormous. (See Hirn, The Sacred Shrine, London, 
Macmillan, 1912.) Among those primitive peoples where the 
female deities are great racial spirits, endowed with power as 
creators, inventors, patrons of industry and arts, workers in 
magic, both good and malign, can we not conceive a profound 
influence exerted upon the adolescent girl taught to reverence 
such supernatural beings of her own sex? 

3. Pre-marital Status. 

The pre-marital status of the girl is a strong determinant 
of sex-discrimination. On this point the greatest variation pre- 
vails. 

Among certain peoples both sexes possess absolute liberty 
before marriage. (96.11:422-423.) In addition to the cases 
here cited and those mentioned previously, we find the fol- 
lowing: The Andaman Islanders consider the girl entirely 
free; intercourse is a mode of courtship, marriage almost in- 



van waters: adolescent girl 77 

variably following pregnancy. (51:67.) Among some of the 
Melanesians (Koita, Motu, etc.), unmarried boys and girls are 
allowed to act as they please in regard to their sexual relations. 
"The greatest decorum is, however, observed between the sexes. 
... In spite of the prevailing license, illegitimate children 
are very rare." (76:134.) The same statement is made of 
certain African peoples. In 1778 it was noted that girls in 
Tahiti were nearly the equals of the men in social position 
and intelligence, and that they possessed complete equality in 
love affairs. (Forster, J. R., Observ. Made on a Voy. Bound 
the World, 1778, pp. 231, 409-422.) In Samoa the girl enjoys 
complete liberty. Here the girl may rise to a position of dig- 
nity and authority almost as great as the chief. She becomes 
taupou, or maid of the village; she must be a chief's daughter, 
and she exercises control over the women and girls. (44, 
1:64-65.) 

With all these people, the sexes are on an equality, both as 
regards degree of ceremonial, and as to responsibility incurred 
by their relations. 

Westermarck has compiled a list of peoples who look on un- 
chastity with horror and punish it severely, sometimes with 
death. (96.11:424-426.) To this group belong the Veddas, 
Igorots of Luzon, certain Australian and African tribes. The 
author concludes, "among primitive peoples in majority of 
cases where chastity is required of unmarried girls the seducer 
also is considered guilty of a crime," usually, he adds, against 
the family of the girl, for the harm done to the girl herself 
does not occur to the savage mind. (96.11:437.) Havelock 
Ellis also assumes this to be the case. (21:147-148.) This is 
exactly the reverse among certain peoples, for example the 
Bontoc Igorot. 

Here the custom is to bonus the unmarried mother, or at 
least to endow her with certain rights. No woman in the 
Bontoc pueblo fails to enter into the trial union of the Olag, 
where the only instruction she receives is "the necessity for 
maternity." (43:67-68.) "A girl is almost invariably faith- 
ful to her temporary lover"; usually marriage follows preg- 
nancy. If, however, the youth deserts the girl, his father must 
give her a rice sementera which enables her to support herself 
and gives her certain rights in the community. (43:67.) It 
has been pointed out that ancient Egypt was among the first 



78 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

to express the dignity of motherhood; a woman's child was 
never illegitimate, not even the child of a slave. (Amelineau 
cited, 21:394.) The Wanyamwezi of Eastern Africa leave 
their property to their illegitimate children, even to the exclu- 
sion of the offspring of their wives, because those of unmarried 
mothers require more assistance. (96:11:424 et seq.) Among 
the Wanyoro, if a girl dies in childbirth, her seducer is also 
condemned to die. Among some of the Sea Dyaks ( Sibuyans) , 
it is held that an unmarried girl-mother is an offense to the 
gods, but instead of chastising the individual these punish the 
community with misfortune. Tribal authorities then collect a 
fine from the lovers to assist in making the necessary sacrifice. 
In this practice we see entire absence of sex-discrimination, and 
even recognition that the tribe is responsible for a young girl's 
delinquency, though she may aid in the removal of the penalty. 

The pre-marital status of women in colonial New England 
may, in some respects be compared to that of certain primitive 
peoples. "Bundling," as a mode of courtship, occurring in 
the New England colonies (lasting till 1845 in some quarters, 
40:182), and in New York and Pennsylvania, is analogous to 
the freedom accorded youth for intimate premarital acquain- 
tance among peoples previously cited. (40:181-187.) On the 
other hand the attitude of New England Puritanism to women 
guilty of sexual immorality presents striking contrast to primi- 
tive conditions. Discrimination in treatment against the 
woman was present in severe form. (40:174-175.) 

Many people, as the Zuni and the Omaha, favor chastity, but 
are not harsh in treatment of the unmarried mother. With 
the Omaha, girls and youths were socially on a moral equality. 
A man was responsible for all his children, while blame was 
equally shared. "If a girl committed indiscretions and later 
led a moral life her acts were not held against her, or her hus- 
band or children, though they were remembered." She was 
permitted to win back by subsequent conduct her lost status. 
(25:324-325.) Thus the Zuni dealt with the problem. The un- 
married mother is kindly treated. Deep regret is expressed at 
her conduct, but all consideration is shown her and her child. 
None of the ceremonies at birth are omitted. (86:302.) 

Quite otherwise was it among the ancient Hebrews and many 
others, ancient and modern. Sexual irregularity was forbidden 
to women, but not to men. (Leviticus, XIX :29 ; Deut., 



VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 79 

XXIII :18.) In Persia an unmarried girl who gave birth to 
a child would be killed. (96:11:428.) A priest's daughter 
among the Jews could profane him by her unchastity, and was 
doomed to be burned. (Leviticus, XXI :9.) Death is still the 
penalty with many African tribes. In the above instances, 
only the girl is held responsible (as with the Iroquois, for the 
different reason that woman's social position and therefore her 
control of the situation is deemed superior to the man's) ; and 
among these peoples the degree of pre-marital discrimination 
is closely correlated with discrimination of social status in 
general. 

Schurtz maintains as a general law that, whenever the free 
union of adolescents is impeded, under conditions in which 
early marriage is also rendered difficult, prostitution must cer- 
tainly arise. (74:190.) Havelock Ellis agrees to this and notes 
eases of the introduction of prostitution among primitive peo- 
ples, indirectly by missionaries, and others who disturb the 
customary relations of the sexes. As examples he cites the 
Bantu Bambola, and the natives of the South Sea island of 
Rotuma. (21:235.) 

The tenor of the work of Jane Addams (A New Conscience 
and An Ancient Evil, New York, 1912), is clearly to estab- 
lish the relation of economic pressure upon youth in causing 
late marriage, and prostitution. It is important to note, how- 
ever, that the evil is ancient, but not primitive, in the sense 
of existing among the most uncultured. Even so scientific a 
writer as Jane Addams has not made this distinction. (See 
pp. 3-4, 218. See also p. 208, where Forel is quoted against 
the view of the primitive origin of prostitution.) 

4. Inversion. 

Closely allied to the question of pre-marital status is the 
problem of homosexuality. We have seen how this is met by 
Indians of British Columbia and the Omaha. Westermarck as- 
serts "It probably occurs, at least sporadically among every 
race of mankind." (96:11:456.) We have little data as to 
relative frequency of distribution among the sexes with primi- 
tive peoples. Havelock Ellis sums up the chief data, noting 
that in certain tribes of Brazilian Indians women frequently 
adopt all the ways of men. (22:80 et seqq.) Dr. Holder, who 
has made special study of the bote among the American In- 



80 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

dians, states that he has met no corresponding phenomenon in 
women. (N. Y. Med. Joum., Dee. 7, 1889.) It is evident, 
however, among some of the American Indians of the Pacific 
Coast, the Omaha, and the Kamchadals of Northern Asia. All 
evidence goes to show, however, that the mode of treatment 
exhibits no sex-discrimination. This problem is of special im- 
portance in relation to modern delinquency and abnormality. 
Among primitive peoples, a useful and appropriate life-role is 
commonly furnished the inverted individual. It is quite possi- 
ble that modern policy could profitably go to school to the 
primitive in this regard. 

VIII. Some Suggestions as to Modern Application 
"When we seek to compare data of this study with that re- 
lating to modern conditions we find a dearth of analogous 
material. Modern literature on the adolescent girl falls into 
two classes, first, a great wealth of anthropometric and biological 
studies dealing with every aspect of growth, nutrition, sex- 
phenomena and disease; second, treatises, half psychological, 
half pedagogical, presenting generic phases of the problem, 
with much stress on the abnormal. While on the physical side, 
a large body of fact is fairly well established, and on the 
mental side a beginning has been made in experimental studies 
of adolescent imagery, volition, suggestion, aussage, and some 
of the higher mental processes, on the social side the meagre- 
ness of definite knowledge is very apparent. Havelock Ellis, 
commenting on the primitive treatment of the adolescent, re- 
grets the loss of primitive puberty initiations, and would advo- 
cate their revision in modern form. (21:89-90.) However 
one may regard the wisdom of a course that would artificially 
reconstruct the spontaneous creations of other peoples and 
cultures, we must surely agree with Marro, that in modern 
life we neglect the puberty of the mind. (52:1.) A compre- 
hensive study of the treatment and reaction of the adolescent 
girl in modern life is therefore much needed. 

The aspects of adolescence which have recently received most 
attention are those which concern defectives and delinquents. 
Almost the entire energy of scientific study of delinquency of 
adolescent girls has been absorbed in the pathological problem. 
Dating from the work of the Lombrosan school the chief aim 
has been to detect correlation between anatomical and neuro- 



VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 81 

logical abnormality and the commission of crime. Scant at- 
tention has been given to the girl in relation to her social 
environment. (An exception is the work of Jane Addams, 
A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil.) Eecently Man- 
ouvrier, member of the International Congress of Criminal 
Anthropology, has set forth the case histories of seven delin- 
quents, from the Paris courts. (52:297-315, 420-438.) He em- 
phasizes his divergence from the standpoint of Lombroso, find- 
ing in the genetic view of the formation of criminals the prime 
influence of sociological, rather than physiological factors, 
(p. 423.) 

He concludes: 

"La moralite" eonsiste en une certaine orientation, une eertaine syst£ma- 
tisation dans le sens de 1 'honnetete". Elle n'est point hgritee parce que les 
tendances herit€es sont purement physiologiques et que les tendances 
physiologiques les plus normales poussent simplement a la satisfaction des 
besoins par les moyens quelconques a la portee de l'individu. Les ten- 
dances pousseront a des actes contraires aux lois sociales sans €tre biologi- 
quement anormales, et un §tat social trouble, morbide, pourra resulter 
d 'actes qui, pour §tre socialement nuisibles, n'en seront pas moins r§gu- 
liers et normaux du cote" biologique. ' ' (52: 425.) 

Detailed study, however, of a number of life histories of de- 
linquents remains to be undertaken.* 

The point of view of the ''new school" of anthropology re- 
garding race has suggestive applicability to the individual. 
Thus Boas attributes racial retardation, not to innate inferior 
capacity, but to historical experience and vicissitudes encoun- 
tered in the social environment. (5:9-10.) So with social and 
moral retardation in the delinquent, may we not assume this 
inferiority explained better by reference to social experience 
than to inherited anatomical stigma? We must not interpret 
the influence of environment in mechanical fashion. As Boas 
points out for the race, the essential thing is the reaction. The 
environment is influential in so far as it tends to develop spe- 
cial forms of customs and beliefs. "These are, however, based 
primarily on cultural conditions." (5:163.) Thus it would 
seem that researches of modern anthropology could furnish a 

* Note : The practical methods of the Juvenile Court and Psychological 
Clinic tend in this direction, but intensive individual studies have not yet 
been forthcoming. Work of the Bedford, New York, laboratories promises 
much in this rich field, under supervision of Dr. Katherine Davis. 



82 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

new method to criminology as distinct from the Lombrosan 
method, as modern anthropology is from the older studies of 
"race psychology." 

The essential thing in this anthropological method applied to 
study of delinquency, would be then, to collect complete life 
histories of the individual, in relation to social environment. 
This method was attempted by the writer in a fragmentary 
and preliminary study. 

In co-operation with prison officials of Oregon, and the head 
of the Woman's Department of the Municipal police of the city 
of Portland, Oregon, a survey was begun in the three summer 
months of 1912. Twenty-five cases of delinquency among 
adolescent girls were personally investigated. In doubtful 
cases, the Binet-Simon tests for intelligence were used. As 
means of control, statistics were compiled of 300 court cases, 
extending over the years 1908-1911, of adolescent girl delin- 
quents in charge of Mrs. L. G. Baldwin, head of the Woman's 
Police Department of Portland. In this the exceedingly care- 
ful records of the above department were of greatest service. 
In limited space of this thesis no adequate treatment can be 
made of the results, but the aim may be briefly illustrated. 
No correlation between physical defect and delinquency was 
apparent. Of cases personally investigated less than 2% were 
feeble-minded. It is important to note that in no case were 
these individuals under long sentence in a strictly penal insti- 
tution ; hence their reactions may be assumed to be more normal 
than would have been the case had their social tendencies been 
rendered artificial by prison repression. 

The following cases have been selected for their relation to 
the treatment of the girl among primitive peoples. 



Case I 
Age : 30. 

Present offense: Charge of vagrancy: Serving 60 days in the City Jail. 

Criminal record: Arrested in Seattle, April, 1900, on vagrancy charge; 
petty larceny. Acquitted. Arrested 1909: Selling liquor to the In- 
dians; for consorting with thieves; held as pickpocket: Two young 
girls reported to have killed themselves on account of her: Acquitted 
after serving minor jail sentence. Seattle, 1. 26, '09. Girl committed 
suicide, blame placed on H. A., Portland, 1. 8. '12. Arrested on white 
slave charge. Acquitted, but held as vagrant. 



VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 83 

Case history: Obtained July, 1912: Verified by letters from girl's mother, 
evidence of jailors and police records. 

Born: Indiana, 1882. 

Nationality: Both parents born in America. 

Parents: Mother married at age of 20: Age at birth of H. A. was 27; 
father's age 42. Both parents had common education. Occupation of 
father: laborer, later a small farmer. Both parents and grandparents 
free from disease or poverty. No criminal record for any other mem- 
ber of family. Age of first menses of mother: 13 years. Age of first 
menses of grandmother: 13 years. Labor of mother at birth of H. A. 
difficult. In physical appearance H. A. resembles father. 

Childhood: Spent on farm. As baby acted in boyish manner. In early 
childhood excelled in games of skill and strength. Tractable, even dis- 
position. Preferred out of door work, did plowing, general farm work. 
Had no sickness, nor children's diseases. 

Brothers: 1. 

Sisters: 1. Age of first menstruation, 13 years. 

Education: Through grades of common school. 

Age of first menstruation: 15 years. Mother noticed no change in her 
boyish disposition at this time. Health continued good. Shortly after 
puberty, H. A. married a man several years older. There was a child 
born, a boy now 13 years of age, in sound health. Boy lives with 
H. A.'s mother. Is now pubescent. 

Soon after birth of this child, the father either died or deserted. 
H. A. was forced to contribute to child's support. She left home, 
endeavored to find work, but could earn only small sum a* domestic 
servant, waitress, etc. 

She then put on man's attire, and did a man's work in farms, lum- 
ber camps, freight depots, stables, dock yards, and cattle ranches, earn- 
ing a man 's full wage. When her sex was discovered, she was arrested, 
and forced to move on. In those cities where it is not a criminal 
offense to wear clothing of the opposite sex, she was watched by the 
police, continually arrested on petty charges, which in every case were 
dismissed. She served sentences as vagrant in these cases. In the 
Portland police court when sentenced to 60 days as vagrant, she said 
to the judge: "You call me vagrant; let me out for one hour in the 
yards or docks, and I'll get a job that will prove I am no vag." 
Though this privilege is accorded to men and boys so situated it was 
refused H. A. Hence her criminal record appears to be result of dis- 
crimination. She steadfastly refuses to wear woman's clothes, declar- 
ing that it is impossible for her to earn an honest and adequate living 
while dressed as a woman. 

She possesses unusual musical ability, can play several musical 
instruments, and has a baritone voice of pleasing quality. She has 
been offered engagements with vaudeville companies. These she re- 
fuses because of her love of open air work. While she remains in the 
country, she is unmolested by the police, but when she comes to the 
cities, detectives soon find her out. Both matrons of jails where she 



84 JOUKNAL OP RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

has served Portland sentences speak highly of her character. She is 
a favorite among the prisoners, but does not exhibit homo-sexual 
tendencies. 

Charge that she ruins girls with whom she comes in contact, and is 
in fact a "white slaver," is not supported by evidence; several cases 
exist where H. A. has taken to her room at night girls unable to find 
work, girls evicted from their rooms by landlords, and girls found 
drunk in saloons, or soliciting on the streets in such an amateur man- 
ner as to assure her that they were new to prostitution. She has re- 
turned two girls to their homes from brothels. Of the truth of the 
charge that two girls committed suicide because of their infatuation 
with her, I have been able to discover nothing. 

One girl committed suicide on the date given above; there is evi- 
dence that she was in an advanced stage of syphilis, was evicted from 
a sporting house in utter destitution, and was cared for by H. A. 

At the time of latest arrest, H. A. was in company of a young 
woman who had left husband and two children in Seattle, and was 
living in a rooming house with H. A. It was impossible to discover 
their relations; the woman was seeking a divorce from her husband. 

To sum up criminal record: Arrests since adolescence seem to have 
been due to attitude of society to her non-conformity to conventions, 
rather than to criminal tendencies. Associations with common crim- 
inals in city jails, prostitutes, petty thieves, drug users, alcoholics — 
have given her experience of lower class social conditions, and a cer- 
tain insight into adolescent phases of delinquency, which may prove 
helpful to the investigator. 
Personal traits: Tall (roughly 5 ft. 9 in.). Weight (in normal condi- 
tion), 160 lbs. In jail about 130. Dark hair, fine quality, cut 
short, slightly thick. Dark eyes; regular features; clear olive skin. 
Looks younger than years, is usually thought to be about 23 or 24 
years old. Wears masculine clothes with ease; muscles of hips and 
shoulders well developed. Breasts slightly under normal development, 
but rounded. No growth of hair on face — lip and chin normal in this 
respect. Hands and feet large, but well shaped. Nails of fingers 
delicate. General muscular development greater than average youth 
of 20. 
Mental development: So far as hasty use of Binet test (revised) shows, 
is a normal adult. Attention good: Memory span normal: Compre- 
hension normal or above. Has alert, forceful manner of speaking, ges- 
turing, etc., but shows few secondary masculine characteristics. Has 
well developed aesthetic sense. Reads Browning as favorite poet; 
reads rather widely in fiction. Does not appear over developed emo- 
tionally; lacks the excitability of the usual homosexual type. 
Remarks : The problem of the psychic sex-phenomena of H. A. is unsolved. 
Physically a preliminary examination fails to reveal marked abnor- 
mality. It is clear that she has been discriminated against socially, 
in her endeavor to escape economic pressure. She prefers society of 
women to men, but has friends of both sexes. It is clear that she has 



VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 85 

sympathy and insight for the women of the underworld, and has done 
something for their welfare. 

What significance should be attached to the fact that she arrived at 
the age of puberty two years later than the other members of her 
family, whose ages have been available, is undetermined. If life in the 
open favors the prolongation of infancy, we might discover some co- 
relation here. 

Compare treatment of this case with primitive treatment of 
the socially or physically inverted adolescent, (25:88; 58.) 



Case II 
Age: 20. 

Present offense: Charge of murder in first degree: Convicted Sept., 1912, 
of manslaughter. No previous criminal record. 
Details of crime : Girl, while living with a chauffeur in a cheap rooming 
house, lured to their room a young man, keeper of a cigar store and 
restaurant. The girl had planned to rob him of money which he freely 
had displayed. To this end she had purchased sleeping powders to 
put in his glass of beer. At midnight he came into her room at her 
invitation, but refused to drink. In the meantime X., the chauffeur, 
was concealed in the closet to watch the affair. The visitor became 
violent, and was in the act of throwing the girl to the floor, when X., 
seizing a bolt of iron, wrapped it in some clothes, rushed from the 
closet and struck the man a blow on the skull. He died instantly. 

The girl then took the keys from his pocket and went into the street 
to rob the till. Only a handful of change was found. X. and the girl, 
after spending the night in the room, left the next morning and escaped 
from the city. Later they were apprehended in another city. 

When arrested B. confessed the crime in all details, and assumed the 
entire blame. She attempted to shield X., and indeed rendered her 
own case hopeless from the outset. 

While being held for trial in the county jail she gave the investi- 
gator the following data; later these data were proved correct by evi- 
dence in the trial, and by independent investigation. 
Case history: 

Nationality : Born in America : Parents both of German descent, one at 

least, born in Germany. 
Family: B., youngest daughter in family of 8 children. All healthy. 
All girls matured before age of 14. Mother at age of 12. At birth of 
B. mother was 35; father was 42. (?) No criminal record for any 
other member of family. No other child either delinquent or dependent. 
Occupation of father: Unskilled laborer, later artisan. Family en- 
vironment was good; no poverty. Associations of family were good; 
many members of German church and clubs. 
Education: Parents: Common school. B: Common school: Three 
years of High School. School record extremely good. 



86 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

Occupation: Cash girl in department store: Waiter: Sales-girl in de- 
partment store: Chorus girl in Dance Hall. 

Physical traits: Height: 5 ft. 3 in. (roughly). Weight: 120 lbs. Fair 
hair and skin. Eyes, light blue. Pretty, but with firm and resolute 
expression. Mouth, hard. Manner, direct and alert, without boldness. 
General appearance as regards dress and bearing: simple, in good 
taste, unaffected, refined, immaculately neat: Nails, delicately mani- 
cured, and well formed. Hair, worn in simplest manner. No trace of 
use of rouge. Appear about 18 years of age. 

General mental traits: Intelligence above average. Passed Binet test. 
Showed unusual comprehension of general topics, of abstractions, and 
of causes and consequences of her own condition. Showed traits of 
obstinacy and violent temper. Reserved, but believe this to be due to 
her abnormal situation and worry rather than usual characteristic. 
Non- emotional, and free from any trace of hysteria, or nervous ex- 
citement; but fully aware of seriousness of her crime. Endeavored to 
commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the County Jail, when 
taken there for exercise; but this done from conviction of hers that 
sentence would be the death penalty, rather than from nervous or 
mental breakdown. B. apparently mentally and physically normal, or 
above average. Influence of menstrual period seems insignificant; at 
time of murder was in the 14th day of the monthly cycle. Has never 
been ill sexually. 

In order to obtain her personal record it was necessary to explain 
that this investigation hoped to collect material useful in keeping 
such a young girl, as she herself had been five years before, from the 
track which she had taken. It was pointed out to her that she was 
in possession of facts about the world which no one else could possibly 
know, and that the only "square thing" to do for the other girl, was 
to disclose this information, before she passed out of the world. (In 
other cases, the personal appeal to individual advantage was sufficient 
to obtain all data, but B. responded only to this social stimulus.) In 
various interviews the following information was obtained. 

B. had a healthy and normal childhood. Children's diseases: Scarlet 
fever, easy recovery; measles, not severe. Age of first menstruation, 12. 

On the day she was 16, she was overpowered by her cousin, a boy two 
years older, a favorite, who lived in her father's house. This affair was 
due to no attachment of romantic nature on either side; nor was there any 
passion in the girl. Up to this time her sex-knowledge was confined to the 
most elementary facts of periodicity and birth. There was no conception. 

B. disclosed the facts to no one, because of love borne her cousin by the 
family. She became moody, sullen, ill-tempered; as she expressed it, "I 
could think of nothing else, I dreamed of it, and was horribly afraid; it 
was impossible to go to school, or to meet new people." Her family in 
the meantime became hostile to her changed attitude; they began criticism 
and rebukes. 

In this crisis B. met young people of a fast set. She craved excitement,. 



van waters: adolescent girl 87 

diversion, stimulants. She was induced to leave home, and having obtained 
work in a department store lived in a city room with girl friends. 

She received $4 a week; although the girls pooled their funds they were 
unable to pay their bills. There were offers of domestic service, but these 
were refused, "as none of the girls had come from a servant class." All 
of them went to the wall. 

B. accepted offer of a man to accompany him to San Francisco. Later 
he fell in love with her and wished to marry her. She consented. Before 
marriage a young girl was discovered by B. to be pregnant as rasult of 
intimacy with the man she was about to marry. 

"I let him go. I urged him to marry the other girl, for though I have 
no passion myself, I recognize it in others. He married her. I had little 
to lose — only my living — while she had a baby perhaps. Afterwards I 
regretted it, for I nearly starved in San Francisco. I could get nothing 
to do, even street work. Twice I worked in families ; once they paid me no 
wages, and once they discharged me for being so poorly trained that I could 
not satisfy them. Then 1 went absolutely to the bad. I didn't go into a 
crib and I did not work the streets, but I worked in a dance hall on the 
Barbary Coast in San Francisco." 

Minute evidence of the truth of these facts was obtained at the trial, 
and by letters, etc. 

In this dance hall B. met with X., an ex-soldier and sporting man. He 
worked as chauffeur. B. fell in love with him; the only man who had 
reached her need. With him she came to Portland; at her request they 
delayed marriage until they could save enough to build a home. They 
came to Portland at the incident of the labor troubles of the winter of 1912. 
X. could find no work. 

"I believe now that he could have found work; but I didn't think so 
then. He tried, but he didn't hunt for the right kind. He, too, had never 
had training in anything. I got work in a department store; a sales-girl 
at $8.00 a week. Out of this sum I had to wear a fresh laundered shirt 
waist every morning. We had little to eat, and before we did for W., we 
had had nothing for several hours, and the landlord had given us notice 
to quit. He told us to get out and hustle. This W. was a cad who had 
hung around me for some time, trying to make a date, and showing off his 
money. I invited him up to the room. But he wouldn't drink; we had 
no idea he would be killed; when I screamed for help, X. rushed up and 
hit him. ' ' 

' ' In reality the whole thing was my fault, because if I had opposed it it 
never would have happened; my will was always the stronger; X. always 
did what 1 said in the end." 

These eases clearly illustrate the operation of social environ- 
ment and the lack of adequate safeguard and outlet at the 
period of puberty. In both, the essential traits manifested are 
energy, activity, independence. This normal character of 
adolescence imperatively requires outlet and expression. (8: 
181, 193.) It is sufficient to recall the treatment of adolescents 



88 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

among primitive peoples to see how adequately under primi- 
tive conditions this provision is made. 

IX. Conclusions 

From the facts presented in this limited survey of an ex- 
ceedingly widespread field, it becomes evident that no general 
theory of the origin and function of primitive modes of treat- 
ment of the adolescent girl can be maintained. An inclusive 
theory seems impossible because of extreme variation. Much 
of these data belong, as we have discovered, to such different 
aspects of thought and feeling that it cannot easily be com- 
pared. To group these facts together without context, would 
do violence to the conditions of primitive life. Recognition 
then, of the diversity of the problem, is the first needful con- 
clusion. 

As we have seen, this variation is of four kinds: (1) in 
ethnological distribution of attention to the onset of puberty 
in girls; here we encounter such extremes as exist between the 
Veddas and Australians within the same range of culture, or 
as among the native tribes of California, where peoples of iden- 
tical cultural and somatic type, inhabiting the same region, 
show one group who do not observe puberty in any way, be- 
tween two groups where the girls' puberty ceremonial is the 
supreme social event. Therefore we find no correlation be- 
tween race and culture and attention to puberty. (2) Varia- 
tion exists in the mode of treatment. This ranges from the 
merest objective mark to the most profound social and religious 
implication. (3) The time at which the "puberty" ceremonial 
is held varies greatly. Just as physical puberty varies in its 
time of onset, with climate, nutrition, race, heredity, occupa- 
tion and social class, etc., so the social rite may occur at dif- 
ferent periods, owing to wealth or poverty of the parents, con- 
venience, social rank, weather, etc., or may be delayed until a 
sufficient number of girls have matured. Cases of physical 
precocity have their social analogues in ceremonies of rebirth 
that may take place at the age of three or four. (A-Kikuyu, 
Routledge, p. 151.) Retardation is also present, but more 
rarely. Puberty, however, may be merely an approximate sign 
that certain years of training must begin. We conclude that 
the term "puberty," as applied to a physical stage, can be 
extended only by convention, to the ceremonies that attend such 



VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 89 

diverse events as social or religious maturity. (4) Great varia- 
tion is displayed in the explanations of the function of 
" puberty "-ceremonies. Thoughts and interests of every social 
class are represented. Certainly we cannot ascribe this com- 
plexity of motives to any one principle, such as totemism, 
animism, sex-attraction, solidarity and the like. 

In spite of this variation, when we seek to reduce the facts 
to their simplest general terms, three tendencies seem to im- 
merge. These may be described as factors which emphasize 
periodicity, individuation, and ''symbiosis." 

A. Periodicity. 

This is apparent in two ways, first in care taken to establish 
a cycle of alternate activity and rest. The cycle is marked in 
numerous ways, such as seclusion, change of food habits, free- 
dom from work, release from social intercourse, and in various 
primitive hygienic devices. Here much is obscure and crude, 
and there are many exceptions; it cannot be doubted, however, 
that a tendency exists in primitive treatment of the adolescent 
girl to secure and stress normal periodicity. The second ele- 
ment in this tendency is psychological. Periodicity in adoles- 
cent mental development is indicated in many primitive rites. 
We need not assume this recognition as fully conscious and 
deliberate. It has been noted that the girl is treated now like 
a child, washed, fed, cradled, breathed upon, guarded, pun- 
ished, now like an adult, admitted to responsibilities and privi- 
leges sometimes determining as with the Seri and Shasta, the 
destiny of others. This range of treatment may occur with the 
same people. Thus there is emphasized the alternating levels 
of adolescent mental growth, with all its disharmonies, periods 
of latency and intermediate stages. Modern studies have recog- 
nized this inequality of growth in both ethical and psychologi- 
cal aspects (53; compare also 35), but primitive peoples have 
apparently succeeded in giving the conception symbolic and 
concrete expression. 

Closely related to the emphasis given normal physical and 
mental periodicity is primitive recognition of the abnormal. 
The psychoses of puberty receive much attention. Yet we must 
not fail to discriminate the meaning of the fact that no ob- 
servance of puberty occurs as a unique rite, detached from all 
other ceremonial events in the life of the individual. Hence 



90 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

when the abnormal aspects of puberty are evident, they appear 
as "rites de passage," in the sense of van Gennep. In this, 
primitive thought does not lag far behind the modern concep- 
tion of the subordinate role of puberty as the cause of neurosis. 
For example, Janet notes that, "The neuroses appear almost 
always at the ages in which the organic and mental transforma- 
tion is the most accentuated, at puberty, marriage, the death 
of intimate relatives or friends, the changes of career or of 
position. ' ' 

B. Individuation. 

The tendency of primitive observance of puberty to mark and 
set forth the individuality of the girl is very apparent. Isola- 
tion from the group, seclusion, living in separate dwelling, 
eating separate meals, etc., find at least one root of explanation 
in the arrival of the girl at independent personal status. More 
explicit is the freedom granted, sometimes in complete measure. 
Decorations, badges, mutilations serve also as individual de- 
vices to mark out the girl from common humanity and other 
groups and generations (29). So, too, disappearance from 
usual activities, setting forth into forest on mountains, leav- 
ing home, etc., are similar in function. This has been recog- 
nized for the boy by many writers, but overlooked in case of 
girls. The acquisition of a guardian spirit, the importance 
conceded to visions, moods and dreams, are other conspicuous 
examples of emphasis placed upon the personal life of this 
period. Ordeals, tests of personal skill and endurance, chance 
for demonstration of ability in diverse fields, all furnish to the 
girl among primitive peoples, outlet for the great access of 
energy and individuality so characteristic of adolescence (8). 

C. Symbiosis* 

By this term is meant that tendency which unites the indi- 
vidual with all elements of the environment as a whole. 

This tendency is everywhere present in primitive treatment 
of the adolescent girl. In spite of extreme variation it is the 
one element to universally emerge. Assimilation of the girl 

* Symbiosis is thus used by Dr. A. F. Chamberlain to illustrate processes 
of socialization in the group, and of affiliation of the human group with 
the animal and cosmic world. Clark University Lectures in Anthropology, 
1912. 



van waters: adolescent girl 91 

to the generic life of her people is brought about first by her 
entrance to the social life of her sex, next by her initiation into 
sexual life, in its physical, social and spiritual significance, and 
finally she is brought into relation with the forces of nature. 
Under one of these three forms of symbiosis the vast majority 
of primitive modes of treatment have their function. 



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VAN WATERS : ADOLESCENT GIRL 95 

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